Iowa to face Michigan State in Big Ten Tournament

IOWA CITY - Iowa will play Michigan State at around 4 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.

Iowa (11-19, 4-14 Big Ten), the No. 10 seed, split its two games against seventh-seeded Michigan State (17-13, 9-9) this year. The Hawkeyes rolled the Spartans 72-52 in Iowa City on Feb. 2. Last Wednesday, Michigan State returned the favor with an 85-66 win in East Lansing, Mich.

Iowa has lost four straight Big Ten Tournament openers, including the last three against Michigan. ESPN2 will televise the game.

The teams enter the tournament from different directions. The Spartans lost to rival Michigan 70-63, while Iowa beat No. 6-ranked Purdue 67-65 on Saturday. Iowa's win ended a 25-game losing streak to ranked opponents.

"Well, it should give us some confidence that we can beat good teams," Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. "We're going to have to beat four of them in succession.  You know, this (Purdue) is clearly one of the better teams, not the best, and we beat them.  So it gives us a lot of confidence."

Michigan State, a Final Four qualifer last year, remains on the NCAA Tournament bubble and a loss could send the Spartans out of the NCAA. The Spartans were tied for fourth in league standings but finished last in the tiebreaker for tournament seeding.

Iowa and Michigan State have played three times in the Big Ten Tournament, with the Hawkeyes winning in 2005 and 2006. Michigan State won in 2000. The teams never have met in the tournament's first round.

Iowa is 4-4 in Big Ten Tournament first-round games.

The Iowa-Michigan State winner will play second-seeded Purdue (25-6, 14-4) around 5:30 p.m. Friday.