University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Michigan State
#2 UConn Primed For Sweet 16 Showdown With #3 MSU
3/25/2026 3:53:00 PM | Men's Basketball
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The two-seed UConn men's basketball team (31-5) is back in action on Friday night in the 2026 NCAA Tournament East Region, taking on three-seed Michigan State (27-7) in Sweet 16 action from Capital One Arena. Tip-off for the Regional Semifinal is set for some time after 9:45 p.m. ET with Ian Eagle, Grant Hill, Bill Raftery and Tracy Wolfson on the call.
The Huskies and Spartans will meet in the postseason for the third time in the respective histories of two of college basketball's perennial powers. Connecticut and Michigan State have split eight meetings all-time in a series that began in 1998 in Storrs. The postseason meetings came in 2009, an MSU victory in the Final Four in Detroit, and in 2014, a UConn triumph in the Elite Eight at Madison Square Garden. The last regular season meeting came in 2021, a 64-60 MSU victory in the Battle 4 Atlantis Semifinal. This season the Huskies and Spartans kicked off a two-year home-and-home exhibition series, with UConn taking a 77-69 win in Hartford on Oct. 28. A return exhibition in East Lansing will take place next season. The Huskies are 7-4 under Dan Hurley against current Big Ten members and have won their last six against the conference, including four-straight in the NCAA Tournament.
UConn is playing in the Round of 16 for the 20th time in its 39th NCAA Tournament and making its 17th trip to the Sweet 16 under the current seeding format (since 1979). The last four times Connecticut reached a Sweet 16 it went on to win the national title (2011, 2014, 2023 and 2024). The Huskies are in the Sweet 16 for the third time in four years and have now made the second weekend in 17 of their 26 NCAA trips since 1990. Hurley is 17-5 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 15-3 in the Big Dance at Connecticut. His .773 winning percentage in March Madness is the fourth-best in the history of the tournament among coaches with at least 15 games coached, behind only Phil Woolpert, John Wooden and Fred Taylor and one spot ahead of Mike Krzyzewski.
Both sides advanced to the Regional Semifinals with a pair of impressive wins last weekend. Michigan State toppled 14-seed North Dakota State, 92-67, before a 77-69 victory over six-seed Louisville. UConn took down #15 Furman in an 82-71 decision before knocking off #7 UCLA with a 73-57 triumph. MSU will make its 19th Sweet 16 appearance since 1985 and 17th under Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo.
UConn was led to wins last weekend in Philadelphia by the senior frontcourt duo of Alex Karaban and Tarris Reed Jr., with each averaging 20 points per game in the two triumphs. Karaban scored 24.5 points per game against Furman and UCLA while shooting 56.3 percent from the floor and 47.1 percent from three. He turned in one of the finest performances of his storied career with a career-high 27 points against UCLA on Sunday. The 49 points in the First and Second Round mark the highest-scoring two-game span of Karaban's 147-game UConn career. Reed Jr. averaged an absurd 20.5 points and 20.0 rebounds in the two wins. He posted one of the great games in NCAA Tournament history on Friday against Furman with 31 points and 27 rebounds. It was the first 30-25 NCAA Tournament game since 1968, the most rebounds in a March Madness game since 1973 and one of two 30-20 games in the Big Dance since 1995. Reed Jr. is one of three men with 40 and 40 in a two-game NCAA Tournament span under the current seeding format, with Tim Duncan and Hakeem Olajuwon the others.
Reed Jr. leads the Huskies with 14.2 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game while shooting 62.8 percent from the field, top-15 nationally. Karaban is second on the squad with 13.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per game while posting a 48.2 / 39.4 / 84.9 shooting line. Solo Ball is another of UConn's five starters averaging double-figures and checks in with 13.0 points per game, followed closely by Braylon Mullins at 12.1 and Silas Demary Jr. with 10.6 per contest. Demary Jr. also leads the BIG EAST with 6.1 assists per game and tops UConn with 1.7 steals per night.
Michigan State has been led this tournament by Coen Carr averaging 19.0 points and 7.0 rebounds per game while shooting 66.7 percent from the field. Big man Carson Cooper is scoring 14.5 points with 7.5 rebounds in MSU's two tournament games while shooting 73.3 percent from the field. Jeremy Fears leads all players this March Madness with 27 total assists, continuing his All-America caliber season that has seen the point guard average 15.3 points and a nation-best 9.4 assists per game. Jaxon Kohler is the Spartans' leading rebounder on the year with 8.9 caroms per game along with 12.6 points a night. Michigan State checks in among the national leaders in assists, rebounding margin and transition scoring.
In the other Regional Semifinal in the East Region, top overall seed Duke will take on BIG EAST rival and five-seed St. John's earlier on Friday night. The winners will square off for the East Region crown on Sunday.
