Kansas State (25-9) is set to take on Michigan State (21-12) in the Sweet 16 on Thursday at 5:30 in the biggest mecca in the sport of basketball, Madison Square Garden.

The Wildcats are at the half-way in their journey to their first Final Four berth since 1964. Their journey brings the Little Apple Cats to the Big Apple.

NYC is home for four Wildcats: Markquis Nowell, Ish Massoud, Nae’Qwan Tomlin and Tykei Greene.

In their way is a Michigan State team that is the 7-seed of the East Region after an underwhelming regular season and an early exit in the Big Ten tournament.

The Spartans are a program that has struggled since the pandemic, but head coach Tom Izzo knows what it takes to make a deep run in the tournament.

Each year since the 2019-20 season that ended with no tournament, Sparty hasn’t had a seed better than a 7-seed.

However, Coach Izzo’s coaching experience will be the key factor if MSU wants to “upset” the Wildcats (upset in quotes because most sportsbooks have the Spartans favored, but K-State is the higher seed).

Michigan State is a team that shoots lights out. They do a great job of spreading the floor and operating their half-court offense effectively. They get open looks by smart passing and tremendous three-point shooting.

The Spartans are 8th in the country from behind the arc shooting a ridiculous 38.7% this season. However, they haven’t been quite as on target in the tournament. In their first-round win against 10-seed USC, they shot 35.7% (5-for-14). In their second-round win against 2-seed Marquette, they really struggled shooting just 12.5% from deep (2-for-16). They did, however, go 19-for-23 from the free-throw line.

This shows that the Spartans are capable of adjusting their gameplan mid-game and strategize how to best their opponent. They have good length and they utilized that to get the upset last weekend, which normally isn’t something they do.

Joey Hauser can be credited with bumping up their outside shooting numbers. When he lets one fly, it’s almost like flipping a coin whether it will go in or not. He’s shooting an absurd 46.2% on nearly 5 attempts per game. That’s number two in the entire country out of the thousands of players in all of Division I teams this season.

K-State’s three-point defense, however, has been phenomenal. Their opponent three-point shooting percentage as of right now is 29.7%. That’s the 12th lowest in the entire country. This will be the unstoppable force vs. immovable object battle to watch out for.

A fun matchup to keep an eye on will be between the two point guards: Tyson Walker of Michigan State and Markquis Nowell for Kansas State.

Walker was awesome for the Spartans in their 69-60 win over Marquette. He scored 23 points shooting 8-for-17 from the floor and was 7-for-8 from the foul line.

Watching him on Sunday, I noticed that there are a lot of similarities in his game to Nowell’s. Walker is also very shifty and has a beautiful stroke. Nowell is the better passer and better at getting to the basket while Walker is the more consistent deep shooter. I look forward to these two heavyweights duking it out as they will likely be guarding each other.

Michigan State doesn’t turn over the ball that much. This season, they are a modest 39th in fewest giveaways per game (10.8). However, the Spartans also don’t force that many turnovers. MSU is 339th out of 363 D1 teams in turnovers forced per game (9.9). This is mainly due to their laxer pressure when defending on the ball.

This will help K-State, a team that averages the 53rd-most turnovers per game (14.1). The Wildcats were much better at protecting the ball against Kentucky with just eight turnovers all game.

Izzo has a staggering record of 53-23 in the NCAA Tournament in his illustrious 28-year head coaching career in East Lansing.

K-State head coach Jerome Tang is a darn good coach too, though, as he is a finalist for Naismith Coach of the Year.

And like Tang said after the win against Kentucky, “Tradition does not help you if you don’t get out there on the floor and play with some dudes, and we had more dudes than they did today,” an answer from a Kentucky reporter trying to get Tang to lick the boots of the Kentucky brand to which Tang was not having it.

He also said, “We have a program that’s rich in tradition also. All those old dudes that played for Kentucky, they ain’t coming back.”

Safe to say that Tang does not feel intimidated playing against supposed “blue blood” programs in back-to-back tournament games.

Prediction: Michigan State 74, Kansas State 68

I think this game will be close the whole game much like the Kentucky. However, I think Izzo’s coaching and Michigan State’s experience will be the difference in this one.

History is in their favor too, as the last time Madison Square Garden hosted regional semifinals and finals was 2017 and the 7-seed, South Carolina, made the Final Four.

I am really hoping a reverse jinx is in order with this prediction because those have gone relatively well for me.

It’s difficult to predict what this K-State team does because they are so different from previous K-State teams.

They are a bunch of misfits that are fueled by people that doubt them so hopefully this makes its way into the locker room in MSG and fuels them to prove me wrong.