Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo was paying close attention to Thursday night’s Big Ten Tournament game between UCLA and Rutgers.
The Spartan head coach was scouting the two teams, awaiting to see if he would face Rutgers for a third time this year after two down-to-the-wire matchups in the regular season or his former player, Xavier Booker, who he faced just a couple of weeks ago, winning by 23.
UCLA controlled the game early and held off any sort of huge late run by the hot-shooting Scarlet Knights, winning 72-59 to beat Rutgers and advance to the quarterfinals on Friday night against a well-rested Michigan State team. Friday’s game between the Spartans and Bruins will be just their second matchup this season, and it will give Booker an opportunity to spoil any sort of Michigan State Big Ten Tournament title run.
Heck, if Booker is able to lead his Bruins past the Spartans on Friday night, it could knock Michigan State down from the 2-seed line.
There’s a non-zero chance that Booker could be the reason Michigan State falls to a 3-seed after climbing all the way back up to a 2-seed after that rough stretch in early February. It took a strong finish to the regular season with road wins over Purdue and Indiana following a couple of home wins over NCAA Tournament teams in UCLA and Ohio State.
That would be a gut-punch.
March could present Michigan State with several familiar faces
Booker isn’t the only former Spartan that Michigan State could see over the next few weeks. Tre Holloman and NC State could draw Michigan State’s region but the Wolfpack have been on the bubble for the past few weeks. It feels like the selection committee might troll Michigan State and give the Spartans a Holloman matchup opportunity.
Santa Clara could also be a first-weekend matchup for Michigan State and that would mean that Gehrig Normand would get a shot at his former teammates in the tourney.
While Booker is getting another shot in the Big Ten Tournament, he could also get one in the NCAA Tournament if the Bruins are to make it past the first weekend — that’s the most likely scenario in which Michigan State will draw UCLA again.
This March could be the March-iest March of all time.