Analyzing the MSU Men’s Basketball 2024-25 Schedule

It’s never too early to start looking ahead to the next basketball season, right?

Michigan State basketball has been on the minds of many lately with a ton of buzz around the transfer portal. The Spartans were able to get a big-time pickup last week in Nebraska Omaha transfer small forward Frankie Fidler — which has increased the expectations for Michigan State next year.

Michigan State should enter next year as one of the top teams in the Big Ten and a likely preseason top 25 team. So how do the Spartans stack up with the opponents on their 2024-25 schedule?

Michigan State won’t release the official schedule for a few months but we already know what to expect for a good chunk of the schedule. So let’s take a quick look ahead to the 2024-25 slate and what we know about the schedule as of right now:

Home Opener vs. Monmouth

Date: November 4

Michigan State basketball will open the 2024-25 regular season with a home matchup against Monmouth of the Coastal Athletic Association. The Hawks finished 18-15 overall last season and had a notable upset road win over West Virginia early in the season.

Home vs. Niagara

Date: November 7

Michigan State basketball will play a second early season home matchup before the Champions Classic against Niagara of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The Purple Eagles finished this past season at 16-16 overall with relatively narrow losses to Notre Dame and Syracuse.

Champions Classic vs. Kansas

Date: November 12

Michigan State will once again compete in the annual Champions Classic event, with this year’s opponent being the Kansas Jayhawks. The matchup will take place in Atlanta and will include a Kansas Jayhawks squad expected to contend for the National Championship in 2025.

Maui Jim Maui Invitational

Dates: November 25 – 27

Michigan State will make its sixth ever appearance in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational this upcoming season. The Spartans last played in the event in 2019, and have only one the tournament once before in 1991.

The bracket and schedule for this year’s event has yet to be released but here are the teams included in the eight-team field: Auburn, Colorado, Dayton, Iowa State, Memphis, Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn. Michigan State will play three games in three days during the tournament.

Oakland at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit

Date: December 17

Michigan State and Oakland will reportedly renew their annual rivalry again this season in a late December matchup. This matchup will take place at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

Michigan State has never lost to Oakland in the series rivalry, but the Golden Grizzlies have played the Spartans tight multiple times. This will be the third time these two teams have played this non-conference matchup at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

Remaining Non-Conference Schedule

The rest of the Spartans’ non-conference schedule is still unknown at this time. Michigan State will have four more games to fill out in their out-of-league slate, with no indication of who those opponents might be at this time.

If we are speculating, though, we can assume Michigan State will add at least one other big-time opponent — especially with the Gavitt Games not renewed for this year. The other four games most likely will be filled out with lower-tier foes.

Big Ten Schedule

The official Big Ten schedule has yet to be released from the conference, but earlier this week the league did release the pairings and home / away splits for each team. Here’s a breakdown of how the Spartans’ conference schedule will eventually be constructed:

Big Ten Tournament

Dates: March 12 – 16, 2025

The Big Ten Tournament will have a new look to it in 2025 with the bracket changing to a 15-team field. Only the top 15 teams in the new 18-team Big Ten will qualify for the conference tournament and get the opportunity to compete for the Big Ten’s auto-bid into the NCAA Tournament.

The location of the Big Ten Tournament in 2025 has yet to be announced.

This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Analyzing the MSU Men’s Basketball 2024-25 Schedule