When Harry Jadun became the Michigan State men’s tennis coach four years ago, he envisioned shaping his alma mater not only into a major player in the Big Ten but on the national level.
The Spartans, for the first time since 1967, won the Big Ten regular-season title, sharing it with No. 3 Ohio State, after both teams finished 12-1 in league play. MSU (18-8) then earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with its first Big Ten Tournament championship since 1967 in a marathon match against the Buckeyes delayed several hours by rain. Matt Forbes clinched the title with a third-set tiebreak for the 4-3 victory. OSU had won 14 of the last 19 tournament titles.
Jadun has led the No. 16 Spartans to their third-straight NCAA Tournament appearance, and they will face No. 43 North Carolina in the first round Friday at South Carolina.
“It just shows that these guys really believe and know how to handle that adversity,” Jadun said of MSU winning in the tournament in Ojai, California, at midnight. “The weather thing, that’s something we’ve been dealing with all year, so it really felt like we were prepared for that moment. Our guys spent some time together in the car (during the rain delays), and they just talked and said, ‘Hey, you know, no matter what happens, we trust each other, we believe in each other.’ I think that’s what got us over the hump.”
It was the second time this season the Spartans defeated the Buckeyes. The Spartans won in Columbus for the first time since 1998 during a regular-season match, ending the Buckeyes’ 49-match conference win streak.
“Winning a Big Ten championship is kind of validation of the vision and the journey that we’ve been on,” Jadun, who joined MSU’s staff as an assistant in 2017, said Thursday during a phone interview. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been on top of the Big Ten, so it feels pretty good. It’s just really cool to kind of be in that same breath of conversation with some of the top teams of the country, and obviously in the Big Ten Conference. So really special, really meaningful to do it with my first recruiting class.”
The cornerstone of that vision was keeping Ozan Baris, an Okemos native, home, just as Jadun, an East Lansing native had done during his career (2012-2015) when he not only earned All-American honors but led the Spartans to the program’s first NCAA appearance. Baris, who ranks No. 43 nationally in singles, was an NCAA singles finalist in 2025 and semifinalist in 2024. Forbes is ranked No. 15 and Aristotelis Thanos is No. 29.
Baris set out when he arrived at Michigan State — Jadun said landing him on the roster gave the program instant credibility on the recruiting trail as he pitched his vision — to build the program and leave a legacy.
“It’s pretty special (winning the Big Ten),” Baris said. “I think the caveat is, there’s always something more. So, you know, I enjoyed the conference title for two days, and then the tournament, I enjoyed for maybe, like, an hour. And then after that, I was just thinking about NCAAs and thinking about who we would play next.
“That’s kind of the blessing and the curse of wanting to be a high achiever is you’re never really satisfied. I’ve just been visualizing what the success on a national scale would look like and what that would mean for the team. And I think that’s, for me, even more special than winning Big Ten titles. That was something on the checklist, but my time is not done in Michigan State. So being able to make a make a scene on the national scene would be pretty cool as well.”
Jadun has prepared the Spartans for this moment. He scheduled tough matches early in the season, and there were some tough patches because of injuries. With eight men on the roster, that made it challenging, but Jadun said this has been a championship-by-committee type of season. The team wasn’t fully healthy until that match at Ohio State on March 15.
Now, Baris said the team is feeling confident heading into the first-round matches.
“Because we’ve won a lot of matches and we’ve been in tough situations the past few months,” Baris said. “With the NCAA Tournament, you don’t really know what’s going to happen, so I’m happy that we’ve had those close matches, and we’ve come through the other side. I think at this point, it’s just kind of keeping our heads down and only playing one match at a time, only playing one point at a time. You’ve got to stay very present and not get ahead of yourself.”
Michigan men also in tournament
The Michigan men’s tennis team (13-10) has a first-round NCAA match Friday against Pepperdine. The Wolverines are led by Max Dahlin, the Big Ten Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, who has won 17 straight matches. This is Michigan’s 10th NCAA Tournament appearance.
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan State men’s tennis cherishes Big Ten title, but seeks more in NCAAs
Reporting by Angelique S. Chengelis, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
