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What Tom Izzo said about Michigan State’s First Four matchup vs. UCLA

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Michigan State creeped in.

On Selection Sunday, the Spartans learned that they did just enough to squeak into the NCAA Tournament for a 23rd straight year. Winning five of the final seven regular season games with wins over Illinois, Ohio State and Michigan proved to be worthy of a March Madness bid.

But the Spartans were slotted into the No. 11 seed and will have a play-in game against UCLA on Thursday night with a chance to play No. 6 BYU on the line. Considering how MSU closed out the year, it was a bit of a surprise that they were put into that play-in game spot.

Tuesday, head coach Tom Izzo talked about Thursday’s showdown against UCLA at Mackey Arena. He’s excited for the opportunity, but knows the Bruins will present a tough challenge.

Here’s what Izzo had to say on Tuesday:

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB