Spartans finish 2026-27 exhibition schedule with Marquette series

Michigan State will warm up for its much-anticipated 2026-27 season on the other side of Lake Michigan.

Michigan State announced Thursday a home-and-home exhibition series with Marquette, which will send the Spartans to Milwaukee‘s Fiserv Forum on Sunday, Oct. 25. With that, Michigan State’s exhibition schedule is set. The Spartans will also host UConn at Breslin Center for another exhibition, date to be determined, as the return trip of the deal that sent them to Storrs last season.

Michigan State is coming off a 27-8 season (15-5 Big Ten) and is expected to rank highly in the preseason rankings. Point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. returns for his redshirt junior season after leading the Spartans with 15.2 points per game and the country with 9.4 assists per game. Michigan State lost only one player to the transfer portal, returning depth at many positions while bolstering the frontcourt with Charlotte transfer Anton Bonke.

Marquette, of the same Big East conference as UConn, missed the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time in coach Shaka Smart’s five-year tenure. The Golden Eagles went 12-20 overall, 7-13 in the Big East, though one of those wins came against UConn (34-6), which wound up playing in the national championship game against Michigan.

Tom Izzo is 2-0 against Smart, with a win in the 2023 NCAA Tournament to send Michigan State to the Sweet 16, and a win over his old Texas Longhorns in the 2018 Las Vegas Invitational.

Michigan State is 33-23 against Marquette in 56 career meetings dating to February 1922. The Spartans have won the last five meetings dating to 1956. Before then, Michigan State went 9-14 on the road against Marquette but 20-9 at home.

In the schedule that counts, Michigan State is also playing some notable opponents. The Spartans will see Duke at Chicago’s United Center for the Champion’s Classic on Nov. 10 and Arkansas at Little Caesars Arena on Thanksgiving. Gonzaga and MSU will also play at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California, with the game expected to take place Dec. 19. Michigan State will also play at Tennessee on a date to be determined.

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Spartans finish 2026-27 exhibition schedule with Marquette series