The Michigan State Spartans beat the Michigan Wolverines for the third time this season, and this time around it earned the basketball program its sixth Big Ten Tournament title. However, MSU’s strong season and convincing play in the conference tournament was not enough to garner a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Michigan State will compete at the No. 2 seed in the East Region and take on No. 15 seed Bradley. The Spartans play on Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. The Bradley Braves, located in Peoria, Illinois, went 20-14 this season, and won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament for an automatic bid into the big dance. Of course, MSU was placed in the same bracket as Duke, who earned the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament. Two other Big Ten teams will compete in the East bracket — Minnesota (10-seed) and Maryland (6-seed). The winner of the MSU/Bradley game takes on the winner of the Louisville/Minnesota team. Louisville defeated Michigan State in overtime back in November, while the Spartans soundly defeated the Golden Gophers 79-55 in the lone meeting this season. Virginia (South), North Carolina (Midwest) and Gonzaga (West) joins Duke as one seeds. Tennessee (South), Kentucky (Midwest) and Michigan (West) joins MSU as two seeds. All in all, the Big Ten got eight teams into the tournament: Michigan State, Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin, Maryland, Iowa, Minnesota and Ohio State. This is the largest number of teams by any one conference. Indiana was one of the last four out. To be honest, this is a terrible draw for Michigan State. However, the Spartans have been able to weather the storm of bad luck all season long and get through just about every obstacle thrown their way. However, contrary to popular belief, MSU is the No. 6 overall seed — not the No. 8 overall seed — according to CBS. Michigan was the No. 8 overall seed. Update: Michigan State and Bradley tip-off at 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, and the game will be broadcast on CBS. Go Green!<doc-sep>Breaking down Thursday's East Region opening-round game between No. 2 Michigan State basketball and No. 15 Bradleyin the 2019 NCAA tournament: Records: No. 2 seed Michigan State (28-6, 16-4 Big Ten); No. 15 Bradley Braves (20-14, 9-9 Missouri Valley Conference). Fast facts: 2:45 p.m., Thursday (CBS), at Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines, Iowa. Winner plays Saturday against either No. 7 Louisville or No. 10 Minnesota. [ How to buy tickets to Michigan State's NCAA basketball games in Des Moines ] About MSU Tournament record: 65-31, 32 years (last appearance, 2018). Scoring: Team (78.8 ppg); Cassius Winston (18.9); Nick Ward (14.0); Matt McQuaid (9.9); Xavier Tillman (9.4); Kenny Goins (8.3). Rebounds: Team (40.9); Goins (8.9); Tillman (7.1); Ward (6.2); Aaron Henry (3.6); Winston (3.1). Assists/turnovers: Team (18.9/12.9); Winston (7.6/2.9); Goins (2.3/1.6); McQuaid (2.1/0.8) 3-pointers: Team (.384); Winston (74); McQuaid (65); Goins (50); Ahrens (20); Henry (11). Last 10: 9-1. Overview: Michigan State battled through injuries to win a share of the Big Ten regular-season title, and then the Big Ten tournament on Sunday. Cassius Winston earned conference player of the year honors and will be a candidate for national player of the year. The Spartans, even with the return of Nick Ward, will go as far in the NCAA tournament as Winston's banged-up knees will carry them. [ Get ready for March Madness with our free Best of the Big Ten newsletter! Subscribe here. ] About Bradley Tournament record: 11-8, eight years (last appearance, 2006). Scoring: Team (66.6 ppg); Darrell Brown (14.7); Elijah Childs (12.2); Nate Kennell (9.4); Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye (8.6); Koch Bar (5.8). Rebounds: Team (34.4); Childs (7.8); Lautier-Ogunleye (5.4); Bar (4.4); Luuk van Bree (4.1); Ja'Shon Henry (2.5). [ NCAA tournament 2019: Print your bracket here! ] Assists/turnovers: Team (12.1/12.6); Brown (3.1/2.4); Lautier-Ogunleye (2.2/1.8); Kennell (1.9/1.0). 3-pointers: Team (.36.6); Brown (75); Kennell (64); Lautier-Ogunleye (31); van Bree (26); Childs (12). Last 10: 8-2. Overview: Bradley was a middle-of-the-pack Missouri Valley Conference team before storming its way to the conference tournament title on Sunday. Bradley last appeared in the NCAA tournament in 2006, when it upset Kansas at The Palace en route to the Sweet 16. Each of Bradley's wins in its conference tournament came by three points or fewer. Chris Solari's pick: MSU 74, Bradley 60<doc-sep>Michigan State is staying in the Midwest to start the NCAA Tournament and playing a mid-major opponent from the same region. The No. 2 seed Spartans will face No. 15 seed Bradley in the first game of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. This will mark the fifth time in school history the teams have played and first since 2008. Michigan State has won all four games in the series. Here's a closer look at Bradley: Location: Peoria, Ill. Enrollment: 5,882 Nickname: Braves Last tourney appearance: 2006. It’s been a while since the Braves were in the dance, but the last time they were there they made some noise. No. 13 seed Bradley upset No. 4 seed Kansas then No. 5 seed Pittsburgh to make the Sweet 16 before eventually falling to Memphis. Tournament history: This is Bradley’s ninth NCAA Tournament appearance. Three of those came in the 1950′s and three in the 1980′s. The Braves went to two Final Fours, in 1950 and 1954. Coach: Brian Wardle, 58-74 in four years at Bradley. 2018-19 record: 20-14, 9-9 in Missouri Valley Conference Rankings: No. 176 NET, No. 157 KPI, No. 165 in KenPom Best win: Beat Penn State, 59-56, on Nov. 21 in a Cancun Challenge game Worst loss: Lost to Eastern Illinois, 73-66, at home on Dec. 15 Common opponent: Penn State: Michigan State won, 71-56 on Jan. 13, Bradley won 59-56 on Nov. 21 Bid: Missouri Valley Conference tournament champion Starting lineup: G Darrell Brown (Jr., 5-10, 190), G Luqman Lundy (Sr., 6-3, 200), G Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye (Sr., 6-4, 210), F Luuk van Bree (Sr., 6-9, 225), F Elijah Childs (Soph., 6-7, 225) Notable: Bradley has already gone on a Cinderella run of sorts. The Braves were just 9-9 in Missouri Valley Conference play and entered the conference tournament as the No. 5 seed, but upset top-seeded Loyola-Chicago, last year’s NCAA Tournament darling, to reach the league final. There, they came back from 18 down in the second half to beat Northern Iowa and win the conference tournament for the first time in 31 years. * After starting 0-5 in MVC play, Bradley has won nine of its last 11 games entering the NCAA Tournament, with its only two losses coming on the road to the top two teams in the final conference standings, Drake and Loyola-Chicago. * Brown is the team's leading scorer at 14.7 points per game an earned second-team All-Missouri Valley Conference honors. He's a 43.9 percent 3-point shooter. * Childs leads the team in rebounds (7.8) and is among the top 100 shot-blockers in the country, with 47 on the season. * Bradley's roster features players from six foreign countries: Cameroon, South Sudan, the Netherlands, Australia, England and Canada. * You may have read or heard something about Bradley basketball in the last week. The program made national headlines when it restricted the access of a longtime local beat writer and reportedly told him it was because he didn’t promote the “Bradley brand.” After an uproar, the school apologized.<doc-sep>Chicago — For the third time in the last four seasons, Michigan State landed a high seed in the NCAA Tournament, earning a 2-seed in the East Region. The Spartans (28-6) will play No. 15 seed Bradley in the first round on 2:45 p.m. Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. It’s the 22nd straight NCAA Tournament appearance for Michigan State, the third-longest active streak in the nation behind Kansas (30) and Duke (24). But after capturing a share of the Big Ten regular-season title last week and winning the Big Ten tournament championship by beating Michigan for the third time on Sunday at the United Center, coach Tom Izzo is starting to wonder why the Spartans aren't getting what he thinks they deserve from the tournament committee. “I have (been honest) and for a couple years now, including ’16, I don’t think we did,” Izzo said after the 65-60 victory over Michigan locked up a conference-best sixth tournament championship. “But today, I don’t care. The problem is, what I’m upset about, is I just don’t think they looked at the 20-game schedule. We played more than any other conference. “But wherever they want me to play. It hasn’t been easy all year and they want me to play outside, I’ll play outside. If they want me to play … doesn’t matter to me anymore. I’m not gonna worry about it but I am gonna worry about it a little bit for the conference. This supposed to be the toughest conference in the country. Everybody’s saying it. But it is what it is.” In 2016, Michigan State beat Purdue for the conference tournament title and expected to hear it was a No. 1 seed. Instead, the Spartans drew a 2-seed and lost to No. 15 Middle Tennessee State. Last season, Michigan State landed in Detroit, but a 3-seed after a 29-4 regular season with another conference title wasn’t enough for a top seed. In the second round, the Spartans were ousted by Syracuse. Entering Sunday’s championship game, the seventh time Michigan State has gone that far, the Spartans had more Quad 1 wins (12) than any team in the nation, and heard murmuring of a possible 1 seed. Instead, the outcome merely moved Michigan State up from the No. 7 overall seed to No. 6 and the committee placed the Spartans in the East based on geography. The reward: being in the same region as No. 1 overall seed Duke. "Michigan State was one of about six or seven teams that started off the week in our minds as a collective committee that we thought could eventually get to the 1 line," committee chairman Bernard Muir said. "At the end of the day, as those tournaments unfolded, we thought Gonzaga deserved to stay on the 1 line. "With regards to assigning teams to their regions, we try to assign teams to their most natural and closest region possible and in the case of Michigan State when their time came up on the seed list after surpassing Kentucky, we decided to put them in their closest region which would have been Washington D.C. for the regional, so that’s why they were assigned there. We don’t look at matchups necessarily. It’s more trying to assign teams to their natural and closest region." Michigan, which lost three times to Michigan State, is the 2-seed in the West where Gonzaga is the No. 1 seed, a spot some thought it might lose after dropping the West Coast Conference championship game to Saint Mary’s. It made it seem the Big Ten tournament championship game mattered little to the committee. “Noooo,” Izzo said when asked if the game mattered. “That’s what’s the problem. Of course not. It’s (the bracket is) already done. We’ve been saying that for years. So I don’t think they do (consider it). I’m sure the committee will say they do, but like I said, I’m not upset about that; I’m used to it. I just think the conference deserves some things because this was the toughest conference, top to bottom, in the country and we played the most conference games in the country.” As Izzo predicted, Muir said every game matters. "What I will say is every game across an entire season matters," said Muir, who added that 12 different brackets existed on Sunday morning. "So I think sometimes fans tend to fixate on the last few games of a conference tournament and we are trying to make sure we look at the full body of work, which you’ve heard the committee speak before. And Michigan State did climb over Kentucky into the 6-seed line. But the committee didn’t feel comfortable moving them above Tennessee, who was no. 5 based on the full season’s results." Michigan State likely will spend little time worrying about seeds. They’ll be back in East Lansing on Monday and then leave for Des Moines on Tuesday to take part in open practices and media sessions on Wednesday before playing on Thursday. If the Spartans win, they’ll advance to play the winner of the matchup between No. 7 Louisville and No. 10 Minnesota. Michigan State lost in overtime at Louisville in late November, but beat Minnesota by 24 last month in East Lansing. Up first, though, is Bradley (20-14), the champion of the Missouri Valley Conference which is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 13 years. “We’re very confident,” coach Brian Wardle told the Chicago Tribune earlier on Sunday. “Whoever we play, wherever we play, we’re going to prepare the same way we’ve done all year and go in there confidently. We feel on a neutral floor we’re as good as anybody when we’re clicking and staying together.” Michigan State is 4-0 all-time against Bradley, winning three in a row from 2006-08. Getting past Bradley will be the first step in helping Michigan State get over a bit of an NCAA Tournament slump. Despite two conference championships in a row, Michigan State’s last three seasons have been clouded by the fact it hasn’t managed to get out of the first weekend of the Tournament.<doc-sep>
Michigan State beat Michigan for a Big Ten tournament title on Sunday to make a late push to potentially be one of the top four teams in the bracket but fell short. The No. 6 Spartans (28-6) drew a No. 2 seed in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament, it was announced Sunday evening during the selection show. They will play Bradley (20-14) in the first round on Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. That puts Michigan State in the same region as No. 1 seed Duke while LSU is the No. 3 seed. The winner between Michigan State and Bradley will face either Louisville or Minnesota to advance to the Sweet 16. Michigan State is 4-0 all-time against Bradley with the last win coming in 2008. The Braves are members of the Missouri Valley Conference. This marks the fourth time the Spartans have been a No. 2 seed in the tournament and they have a interesting history when tied to that number. They won a national title in 1979, lost in the national championship in 2009 and were upset in the first round by Middle Tennessee State in 2016. Michigan State was a No. 3 seed in the tournament last year and was upset by Syracuse in the second round in Detroit. Coach Tom Izzo has guided Michigan State to 22 straight NCAA Tournament appearances. That is the third-longest active streak in the nation, trailing only Kansas (30) and Duke (24). With point guard and Big Ten Player of the Year Cassius Winston leading the way, Michigan State shared a conference regular-season title with Purdue. The Spartans did so with Josh Langford suffering a season-ending stress injury to his left ankle in December while forward Nick Ward missed the final five games of the regular season with a broken left hand before returning in the Big Ten tournament. Guard Kyle Ahrens suffered a leg injury in Sunday’s win against Michigan but a team spokesman said X-Rays were negative.