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Michigan State basketball is set to meet some elite competition in the desert next season.
Per CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein, Michigan State and Gonzaga are finalizing a regular season game at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California, on Dec. 19. According to Rothstein, the Michigan State and Gonzaga women's basketball teams will also play a game in Palm Desert around the same time, with an official announcement to come.
The Spartans finished 27-8 in the 2025-26 season, which ended with a 67-63 Sweet 16 loss to eventual runner up UConn. Gonzaga, meanwhile, finished 31-4 but lost in the second round 74-68 to Texas.
TRENDING: Michigan State's Jeremy Fears Jr. declares for NBA Draft, keeping college eligibility
The 2026-27 season will be Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's 32nd with the program as he has taken the Spartans to 28 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, which is the active record.
One of the few coaches in college basketball who can nearly match Izzo's long-term status is Gonzaga coach Mark Few, who has coached the Bulldogs since the 1999-2000 season. Few has taken Gonzaga to 27 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, five times as a 1-seed, but the Bulldogs have yet to break through with a national championship with Few at the helm.
Few (773) and Izzo (764) are No. 5 and No. 6 in career wins among active Division 1 coaches, trailing St. John's coach Rick Pitino (915), Arkansas coach John Calipari (905), Tennessee coach Rick Barnes (861) and Kansas coach Bill Self (855).
Michigan State and Gonzaga have met six times, most recently (and most memorably) in a neutral-site game on Nov. 11, 2022, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in San Diego (Gonzaga won that game, 64-63). The Spartans won the previous two matchups, a 74-67 win in Spokane, Washington in 2011 and a 75-71 win in East Lansing in 2009.
The two programs also had a memorable triple-overtime matchup in the Maui Classic in 2005 that the Bulldogs won, 109-106, in an epic duel between Adam Morrison (43 points) and Maurice Ager (36 points).
Need to catch up on the news during your lunch break? Sign up for our Sports Briefing newsletter to get daily summaries of Detroit sports!
You can reach Christian at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State finalizing game vs Gonzaga in Palm Desert in December
Continue reading...
Per CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein, Michigan State and Gonzaga are finalizing a regular season game at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California, on Dec. 19. According to Rothstein, the Michigan State and Gonzaga women's basketball teams will also play a game in Palm Desert around the same time, with an official announcement to come.
The Spartans finished 27-8 in the 2025-26 season, which ended with a 67-63 Sweet 16 loss to eventual runner up UConn. Gonzaga, meanwhile, finished 31-4 but lost in the second round 74-68 to Texas.
TRENDING: Michigan State's Jeremy Fears Jr. declares for NBA Draft, keeping college eligibility
The 2026-27 season will be Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's 32nd with the program as he has taken the Spartans to 28 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, which is the active record.
One of the few coaches in college basketball who can nearly match Izzo's long-term status is Gonzaga coach Mark Few, who has coached the Bulldogs since the 1999-2000 season. Few has taken Gonzaga to 27 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, five times as a 1-seed, but the Bulldogs have yet to break through with a national championship with Few at the helm.
Few (773) and Izzo (764) are No. 5 and No. 6 in career wins among active Division 1 coaches, trailing St. John's coach Rick Pitino (915), Arkansas coach John Calipari (905), Tennessee coach Rick Barnes (861) and Kansas coach Bill Self (855).
Michigan State and Gonzaga have met six times, most recently (and most memorably) in a neutral-site game on Nov. 11, 2022, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in San Diego (Gonzaga won that game, 64-63). The Spartans won the previous two matchups, a 74-67 win in Spokane, Washington in 2011 and a 75-71 win in East Lansing in 2009.
The two programs also had a memorable triple-overtime matchup in the Maui Classic in 2005 that the Bulldogs won, 109-106, in an epic duel between Adam Morrison (43 points) and Maurice Ager (36 points).
Need to catch up on the news during your lunch break? Sign up for our Sports Briefing newsletter to get daily summaries of Detroit sports!
You can reach Christian at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State finalizing game vs Gonzaga in Palm Desert in December
Continue reading...
