MSU basketball looking to punch first vs. Illinois

EAST LANSING – Michigan State’s coaches “kind of hung up the whistle” when the scout team guarded the regulars this week, Travis Trice said, and the Spartans’ 59-54 loss to Illinois on Feb.

7 gets credit for the liberal contact allowance.

“I think they outtoughed us, honestly,” Trice said of the Fighting Illini in the first meeting. “They were really physical with us. So our thing (in the rematch) is to make the first punch rather than take the first one, like we did here.” - Read more at Freep.com