What MSU Players Expect from Hostile Atmosphere at Mackey

What the Spartans Think

"That's the thing: I have no clue," Michigan State freshman Cam Ward, who was seven years old when MSU won in Mackey last, said Tuesday. "I don't know what to expect [from Mackey]. I just know it's gonna be loud, it's gonna be rowdy, I know they're [Purdue's] going to feed off the energy from the crowd."

A large percentage of the Spartans' roster doesn't truly know what to expect. The only players on the roster that played during the Michigan State's last game at Mackey on March 2, 2024, are Carson Cooper, Jaxon Kohler, and Coen Carr.

"They've got a great environment out there," Carr, now a junior, said. "The crowd is crazy. And when I played, the problem was Zach Edey, too, when I played there [two years ago]. That was tough. But yeah, they've got a great crowd. They always play good there."

Michigan State has also been trying to simulate the wall of crowd noise it'll be going up against on Thursday. During practices, the team often blasts audio of a crowd while the team is going through offensive sets.

"It helps a lot," Carr said about that practice. "It just gets you used to it. We always try to do it when we go into arenas like that, that are known to be loud and are known to have a great crowd. So yeah, we just try to get used to talking while there's noise and still be able to play tired when it's loud and stuff like that."

The 7-foot-3 Edey is in the NBA now, but that doesn't mean Purdue's frontcourt has taken much of a step back. Trey Kaufman-Renn is still there and is averaging 13.3 points and 9.0 rebounds a game. South Dakota State transfer Oscar Cluff also runs the five, averaging 10.1 points per game while shooting a Big Ten-best 72.1% from the field (minimum five shots per game). Not to mention that the Big Ten's all-time leader in assists, Braden Smith, is the one who will be getting them the ball.

"We've got a big task at hand, as far as the bigs, of course, with Cluff and Kaufman-Renn," Ward said. "Those are two of the best bigs in the Big Ten. Probably one of the better [duo of] bigs in the country."

Purdue is 12-3 at home this season. All three teams the Boilermakers have lost to in West Lafayette are teams currently ranked inside the AP top 10 as well (No. 3 Michigan, No. 4 Iowa State, No. 10 Illinois). We'll see how the Spartans end up handling it.