Eastern Michigan University, East Lansing, MI – The 2023 Gavitt Tipoff Games, featuring Big Ten and Big East Conference clubs, will feature the Michigan State men’s basketball team hosting Butler.
The Gavitt Games, named after Big East Conference founder and basketball visionary Dave Gavitt, will be played for the eighth time this season, with Butler taking against Michigan State as one of the eight contests.
The first full week of the collegiate basketball season is dedicated to the Gavitt Tipoff Games, which are played on consecutive days.
The 26th and last match between the two institutions, the Spartans now have a 14-11 advantage in the series.
The last time these two teams met was at the Gavitt Games on November 17, 2021, in Hinkle Fieldhouse, with Michigan State coming out on top with a 73-52 victory.
This will be Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo’s third meeting with Butler. In the last encounter between these two teams, back in the 2010 NCAA National Semifinals in Indianapolis, the Bulldogs prevailed, 52-50.
Beginning in 1972, the two teams played a total of 23 times at both locations. The Spartans have a winning home record of 9-2 versus Butler. In 1936, the Bulldogs won 24-21 in East Lansing, marking their last victory there.
Jaden Akins is ready to take the next step with Michigan State after returning from NBA Draught preparation.
HOLT – After more than a month of preparation for the NBA Draught, Jaden Akins has learned nothing that is unexpected.
The Michigan State junior guard entered the NBA Draught pool in April, but withdrew his name just before the May 31 deadline so that he could return to school.
Between meetings, he worked out for NBA clubs and received input from executives in the league.
What insight did he get about his position going into the next level?
Nothing about Thursday night’s Moneyball Pro-Am game at Holt High School shocked Akins, he claimed. The key is to continue developing as a player so that you can excel at the collegiate level.
Like Michigan State fans, NBA officials have yet to see a whole season of Akins playing at peak health.
He had a little role for the Spartans as a freshman in 2021-22, although he showed promise in spurts.
He was poised to take on a starting position as a sophomore, but a foot injury forced him to miss the whole preseason, caused him to miss four games early in the season, and left him playing crippled for the rest of the year.
In the last seven games of the season, he averaged 13.4 points on 47 percent shooting, leading Michigan State to the Sweet 16.
Akins took that ending and applied it to the NBA Draught process, and now he knows exactly what he has to accomplish this season to be ready for the next level.
Akins said, “I think it went well.” “Hearing some criticism and understanding where I stand this year.”
This summer in Moneyball, Lansing’s annual summer basketball league, Akins and the rest of Michigan State’s healthy scholarship players will show off their accomplishments.
Akins has claimed that the league allows him a chance to show off his skills to a wider audience than he would in Michigan State’s indoor facility.
I’m just going to have fun and try to improve my game a little bit,” Akins added. The advice was, “Don’t overdo it, but try to get better a little bit.”
Michigan State brought back more than just Akins at guard. Tyson Walker, the Spartans’ starting point guard, elected to return for his fifth year of eligibility, while A.J. Hoggard, the team’s shooting guard, also passed on the draught.
In 2023-24, Michigan State will have its entire perimeter rotation back, and they’ll be bolstered by the addition of Jeremy Fears, a McDonald’s All-American guard.
Akins said, “There’s a lot of talent there.” We have both seasoned veterans and fresh blood. Top to bottom, I think we have the deepest backcourt in the nation.
The addition of Akins to Michigan State’s deep backcourt could give the Spartans a fresh look this season.
“We’re athletic at every position,” Akins said. I think we’ll have a lot more success in the scoring department if we go out and run this year.
How many men’s basketball national titles does Michigan State have?
The school’s basketball team plays in the Big Ten Conference of the NCAA’s top tier. The Spartans have won two NCAA titles and sixteen Big Ten titles. East Lansing, Michigan is home to the team, and its home games are held at the Breslin Student Events Centre (or “Breslin Centre”). Since 1995, Tom Izzo has coached the team.
The basketball team at Michigan State is tremendously skilled and deep. How will Izzo combine these elements?
HOLT — Naturally, the dunks are what draw the biggest audiences. And to check out their Spartans, particularly the new faces. Even while some people wouldn’t mind shelling out a few bucks, having high hopes and expectations for the next Michigan State basketball season makes the fact that it’s free all the more appealing.
The newest round of the Moneyball Pro-Am, a series of glorified pick-up games featuring a handful of Spartans most evenings, drew hundreds of automobiles to the parking lots surrounding Holt High School on Thursday night.
Only three starters from the opening night game last month — sophomore centre Jaxon Kohler, senior forward Malik Hall (recovering from offseason surgery), and senior point guard A.J. Hoggard — were available for this game. Even if his three classmate freshmen participated, forward freshman Gehrig Normand did not.
The gym was crowded with four and five star talent on Thursday night, including Normand, Coen Carr, Xavier Booker, and Jeremy Fears, who make up the best rated and most highly regarded recruiting class Tom Izzo has had in a while.
People were eager to get a look. I was hoping for a peek.
However, Moneyball just provides a peek; it is more of a show than a game, and that is the objective. Nonetheless, there are certain constants: Booker’s height, measured at 6 feet 10, stands out in tandem with his outside abilities, especially his handling and shooting. Coen has great vertical and will quickly become the top dunker for the programme in the next five years.
His playing time will depend on his ability to get boards and defend (his shooting isn’t great now). Fears is quick to act and perceive the situation clearly, but it is his voice that ultimately resonates. He exudes assurance and maturity, and if junior guard Jaden Akins is any indication, Tom Izzo may have found his next team captain.
“He’s a good, fast, playmaking guard,” Akins said of him. It’s been said of him, “He’s vocal. I think he’ll be successful overseas with his game.
The first year is the most formative, right?
No matter how many stars they bring with them (Fears and Booker each have five). Those stellar decorations don’t help with the adjustment. They may be an obstruction at times, especially when personal expectations clash with those of the group.
And the group has always been important to Izzo.
When these first-years join the core of a team that almost made the Elite Eight last spring, he’ll have his hands full. The basis for a lengthy playoff run may be found in depth, particularly skilled depth. It may be submerged by the depths as well.
It’s been a long time since anybody has seen an Izzo roster with so much returning (and proven) skill and so much promise in the incoming class. With any summer improvement from its core, the Spartans would have been competitive even without this recruiting class.
But with the ability?
“We’re deep at every position,” Akins added.
At all times, Izzo will have at least two players in the rotation at each position. Both veterans and rookies will have to accept the fact that they won’t all get equal playing time.
That’s Izzo’s initial accusation.
His second objective is to help his team members focus on the collective success they can achieve. Akins said this on Thursday, but the conversations have been going on for some time.
Tom Izzo anticipates a banner year for Michigan State in 2023-24.
“Coach and I had a lot of conversations,” he stated. He informed me what I need to do to advance to the next level, as well as what I should be doing for the team as a whole. We may achieve our respective aims by negotiating a mutually beneficial compromise.
Of course Akins wants to win the Big Ten and the national championship. The junior guard, though, is just as eager to play at the NBA level. In the spring, he registered for the draught as a kind of exploratory measure.
The point was not lost on him.
Not that he didn’t already know it, but the league’s general managers and front office personnel urged him to continue honing his defensive, shooting, and playmaking skills.
Nothing has come as a complete shock to me,” he remarked.
The news was welcome nevertheless.
Due to a foot issue, Akins did not participate in preseason or summer training last year. In the second half of MSU’s Sweet 16 matchup against Kansas State, his defence on the Wildcats’ electrifying point player Markquis Nowell proved to be a game-changer. Izzo had been raving about his all-court and two-way game since recruiting him.
If he can continue his strong play from the competition, he has a chance to become the team’s most valuable player. This will be Tyson Walker’s sixth year of collegiate basketball, and he should be the team’s top scorer. And the squad should be led by Hoggard.
Hoggard is essential to the success of the squad. Next year, though, Akins may be the most complete player on the team.
On Thursday night, he rested up like the rest of his squad should have been doing. Even though he dunked on himself after throwing the ball over the backboard and launching it from 25 feet, he still swung the ball and looked for the correct move.
Currently, “I’m working on my game a bit,” he said.
That wasn’t obscure despite the casualness of the situation. His grip seemed more firm, and his initial stride appeared more confident. Then there’s his sweater. As easily as it did when he last donned green and white down the stretch.
Walker, Hoggard, Hall, Mady Sissoko, and Carson Cooper all wore it again, and all of them looked more natural and assured than he did even three months ago.