SEATTLE — Riding a four-game win streak now becomes about maintaining momentum and managing minutes for Michigan State basketball.
Coach Tom Izzo also wants to finish the West Coast swing strong, knowing the schedule’s intensity cranks up in the weeks ahead. But first comes another first: The Spartans will play their first game in Eugene, Oregon as conference-mates with the Ducks. MSU’s only other trip to Eugene? An 87-82 loss in December 1969.
Back in 2026, the 10th-ranked Spartans (16-2, 6-1 Big Ten) face a struggling and depleted Ducks squad (8-10, 1-6) on Tuesday, Jan. 20 (9 p.m., FS1). Here’s what to watch for at Matthew Knight Arena:
Another hot start
MSU is two wins away from equaling its 18-2 start from a year ago, after which the Spartans lost two games on their West Coast trip to Los Angeles and three in a four-game stretch. Those, however, were their only regular-season defeats as the Spartans won Izzo’s 11th Big Ten title by three games and eventually advanced to his 11th Elite Eight.
“We put ourselves in a position,” Izzo said last week. “Now, it is similar to last year, but a little different because of some of the teams we’ve beaten. And yet the schedule doesn’t get easier. We’re still one of those teams that our margin of error is still minimal.”
In their six Big Ten wins, MSU’s average margin of victory is 16.3 points. The Spartans’ closest victory was a four-point road win at Penn State on Dec. 13, while their lone defeat was a two-point loss Jan. 2 at Nebraska.
With a strong fan contingent Saturday afternoon at Washington, MSU took a first-half lead and kept building en route to an 80-63 victory. It was the Spartans’ first win ever on the road against the Huskies, albeit just their second meeting in Seattle, with the first being a loss in 1957.
“I’m just happy we won the game, because I didn’t think we played great,” Izzo said Saturday.
The Spartans also opened the 2018-19 season with an 18-2 start; that was followed by losing three straight and rallying to a share of the Big Ten title. This year’s team returns home after the Oregon game to face Maryland on Saturday (noon, CBS) and then quickly hits the road for a trip to Rutgers on Jan. 27.
Three more wins would put MSU at 9-1 at the midpoint of the Big Ten schedule. But the Spartans’ slate quickly ratchets up with a visit from No. 2 Michigan on Jan. 30. They also have the back half of their schedule featuring games at home against No. 11 Illinois (Feb. 7), on the road at Minnesota (Feb. 4), Wisconsin (Feb. 13), No. 4 Purdue (Feb. 26) and Indiana (March 1) before wrapping the regular season in Ann Arbor against the Wolverines on March 8.
Yo la Teng
Kur Teng, who hit three 3-ponters for the second straight game, is emerging as MSU’s biggest deep-shooting threat and giving Izzo an instant offense option off the bench.
Over his last eight games, with one start, Teng is averaging 10.3 points and three rebounds per game while shooting 40% from 3-point range (18-for-45). The 6-foot-5, 200-pound sophomore also is getting 19.5 minutes a game in that stretch, even though Izzo remains on him about the need for improved defense.
Against Washington, Teng had 11 points on 3-for-5 shooting from 3-point range (he missed all three of his shots inside the arc). He played 20 minutes for the fourth time this season and third time in five games in 2026.
Teng’s uptick in court time chipped into the minutes for sophomore starting shooting guard Divine Ugochukwu, who got his Big Ten low this season with 16 minutes and did not play at point guard. Izzo instead used Denham Wojcik to back up Jeremy Fears Jr. and gave the senior Harvard transfer (and son of MSU assistant coach Doug Wojcik) his longest run in Big Ten play at 11 minutes.
“I know what I need to do, and I know what coach is always telling me to do. It’s never gonna be anything crazy. Sometimes I play for 30 seconds, 45 seconds at a time. … For the most part, I know at this point I’ll probably get a stint here or there simply just because Jeremy needs a break and a chance to take a break.”
After remaining in one place on last year’s trip west to Los Angeles, MSU bussed to Portland after beating Washington on Saturday, then practiced Sunday afternoon at Nike’s headquarters in suburban Beaverton. The Spartans headed to Eugene on Monday for workouts and to get acclimated to the Ducks’ arena.
“It’s just good to get a good routine,” center Carson Cooper said Saturday. “Coach did a good job making kind of making sure that we didn’t overdo it and that we had shootarounds planned and practices planned and everything. I felt like coach could’ve done more, but he decided it was smarter to just kind of rest and do some things at the hotel instead of going to the gym more and doing extra stuff.”
Oregon update
Things are quickly unraveling for the Ducks, whose 81-71 home loss to U-M on Saturday made it four straight defeats.
Oregon lost starting point guard Jackson Shelstad for the season to a hand injury, and star forward Nate Bittle will miss a month with a foot issue. Neither played in the loss to the Wolverines, and those two combined to average 31.9 points, 9.6 rebounds and 6.9 assists between them.
“Nobody’s going to play less hard against us because Nate and Jackson are out,” forward Sean Stewart told Oregon Live. “We have to play harder than ever.”
Minus their two leading scorers, the Ducks led Michigan at halftime and stayed close well into the second half Saturday. Stewart, a 6-9 junior forward who has played against MSU in stops at Duke and Ohio State, had 22 points and eight rebounds. Kwame Evans Jr., a 6-10 junior forward, added 18 points and seven boards, while 6-4 sophomore point guard Wei Lin had 11 points but on just 2-for-12 shooting with four assists in taking over starting duties for Shelstad.
Coach Dana Altman went essentially with a six-man rotation, giving four of his starters 30-plus minutes and playing 6-5 senior swingman Takai Simpkins for 39 minutes and Evans for 35. Evans averages 13.2 points and a team-leading 7.5 rebounds, while Simpkins averages 12.4 points and Stewart a well-rounded 7.2 points and 5.8 rebounds.
Michigan State basketall vs Oregon prediction
Izzo’s ability to juggle lineups and minutes at Washington pays off and allows him to use Jeremy Fears Jr. to pressure and pester Wei Lin defensively to disrupt the Ducks. Expect a bounce-back performance from Jaxon Kohler, as the Spartans try to wear down Oregon’s interior defense with him and Carson Cooper and return to East Lansing with a fifth straight win. The pick: MSU 88, Oregon 72.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball vs Oregon prediction, keys to the game
Reporting by Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
