Michigan State will almost certainly be playing Duke as part of its 2020-21 non-conference schedule. Tom Izzo said on Wednesday he’s “99 percent sure” the game will happen this year as part of the Champions Classic.
As for the other 26 games on Michigan State’s schedule?
“There’s a lot of gray area,” Izzo said.
When Michigan State opened its official preseason practice on Wednesday, six weeks ahead of the first competition date, it did so without an official schedule to prepare for.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused previously scheduled games to get rescheduled, canceled, relocated and everything in between – all before the season has even tipped off.
The pieces for the Spartans' schedule may not be coming together for a while yet.
“I think for the most part, we’re going to practice for a couple more weeks before we know what’s really going on,” Izzo said.
The Michigan State-Duke game is expected to be played on Dec. 1 in Orlando, according to a report last month in Stadium, six days after the start of the season.
That game could be part of an extended Michigan State trip to Orlando to open the season. The Spartans were originally contracted to play in the Orlando Invitational, an eight-team event held at Walt Disney World during Thanksgiving break.
That event, like many tournaments, has been upended, with six of those eight teams reportedly withdrawing. But the Spartans could still find opponents to play in Orlando during the first week of the season before playing Duke. Izzo said on Wednesday that “we could be playing a lot of games in Orlando.”
Beyond that potential season-opening trip to Florida, though, everything else about Michigan State’s schedule appears to be up in the air. The Big Ten has yet to announce its conference schedule, nor any plans for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Gavitt Games, a Big Ten-Big East challenge series the Spartans are contracted to play in, won’t be played this year, according to CBS.
In making the rest of its schedule, Izzo said Michigan State will look to limit travel when possible and potentially take bus trips this season to locations it previously flew to.
And as players start to prepare for that season without a schedule, Izzo said coaches are telling them to be ready for a typically difficult set of opponents.
“We’re just trying to tell them you get as good as you can get,” Izzo said. “Because no matter who we play, we’ve got to have our offense in, we’ve got to have our defense in, we’ve got to have our out of bounds plays.”
While Michigan State is looking to fill its season schedule, it won’t be filling its preseason schedule like normal. Teams typically play either two exhibition games or one exhibition game and a closed scrimmage against an opponent.
Those are all off this year. As a result, Izzo said he’s adjusting his preseason plan as his players prepare for six weeks with no outside competition.
Within days of the Big Ten’s decision to restart the 2020 football season, Michigan State had its full schedule in hand.
But college basketball’s scheduling is more complicated, for several reasons.
For one, the sport is also attempting to play non-conference games, meaning individual schools must fend for themselves as opposed relying on a conference office making full schedule.
The sport is also still planning on playing its multi-team events, which adds a layer of difficulty when trying to coordinate dates, travel and protocols with four different teams instead of two.
For a coach like Izzo, who likes as much control as possible, waiting on a process that’s largely been out of his control hasn’t been easy.
“That has been frustrating, you know, because we just don’t know the rules of the game yet,” Izzo said. “And it’s nobody’s fault.”
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Michigan State-Duke nearly set, but rest of Spartans’ schedule still in limbo - mlive.com
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