Tom Izzo, Michigan State make rare visit to Hartford for UConn's 'last quiz before the test'

HARTFORD — In the eight times the UConn men's basketball team has faced Michigan State over the past 28 years, the stakes have usually been pretty high.

They met in the Final Four in 2009, then five years later in the Elite Eight, with a trip to the Final Four on the line. And they've met in big-time early-season tournaments all over the world: from Portland, Ore. to Maui to the Bahamas to Germany.

The stakes won't be quite so high on Tuesday, when the Huskies host the Spartans at PeoplesBank Arena (nee XL Center) in Hartford at 7:30 p.m. (WFSB/UConn+). It will be the second and final exhibition game for both programs, with their respective season-openers looming less than a week later.

Still, it will be an excellent opportunity for both ranked teams to find out a little more about themselves against top-tier competition.

It will also be a rare visit to the Nutmeg State for Tom Izzo, Michigan State's Hall of Fame head coach.

Izzo hasn't coached a game in Connecticut since 1998, when he actually coached three games here. The fourth-seeded Spartans beat Eastern Michigan and Princeton in a pair of first-weekend NCAA Tournament games at Hartford Civic Center (now known as PeoplesBank Arena).

About nine months later, the Spartans traveled to Gampel Pavilion for a non-conference tilt and got beat 82-68 in their first-ever meeting with the Huskies, who wound up winning their first national championship later that season.

The following season, Michigan State crushed the Huskies 85-68 on Feb. 5, 2000 in Lansing, Michigan. Two months later, Izzo and the Spartans were crowned national champions.

The programs have met six times since then, never in the regular season. Michigan State handed Jim Calhoun and the Huskies their lone loss in a Final Four in 2009 before falling to North Carolina two nights later. In 2014, Kevin Ollie and UConn topped the Spartans 60-54 in the Elite Eight before a rowdy crowd at Madison Square Garden. A little over a week later, the Huskies had won their fourth national title.

In all, UConn and Michigan State have split their eight meetings. The results of Tuesday night's exhibition won't count towards the rivalry, but the performances by each team will be important to their respective coaches.

"We're going to use (Tuesday) night as probably the last quiz before the test," Dan Hurley said after practice on Monday. "We're still evaluating and in the mode of people earning (minutes). Coming out of this exhibition game, we'll settle into who's earned it. The exhibition game is part of things we look at to see who's earned what."

Five-star freshman Braylon Mullins is out for about six weeks with an ankle injury. It would seem that Jaylin Stewart and/or Jayden Ross, both juniors, are the leading candidates to grab his spot in the starting lineup and earn more minutes. But nothing is set in stone, Hurley noted.

"I'm not going to do as much prognosticating with players anymore," Hurley said. "As juniors, we want to see these guys go out, be assertive. I want to see assertive men. Assertive with their actions, the way they carry themselves. Assertive like UConn men should be."

Meanwhile, starting center Tarris Reed Jr. will also be sidelined on Tuesday night. The 6-foot-11 senior has been bothered by a hamstring issue most of this month and missed UConn's other exhibition game, on Oct. 13 against Boston College. 

Hurley noted that Reed will likely be back on the floor soon, and didn't rule him out for the Huskies' season-opener on Nov. 3 against New Haven.

"He looks good," the coach said. "We need him healthy for the long season."

Either way, the Huskies will get a good challenge on Tuesday night against a perennial national powerhouse and a Hall of Fame coach.

"It'll be real beneficial," Hurley added. "It's one of the classiest programs you could play against. Not just the way they run it but the physicality, how hard they play, one of the best coaches of all-time. It's going to be very beneficial."