EAST LANSING --- Michigan State's 2026-27 season got off to a good start on Monday with a 96-59 win over Quinnipiac. That's just Game No. 1 out of 32 in the regular season, though.

"We have 31 (games) left," Tom Izzo said after Monday's victory. "There's gonna be some ups and downs in those 31."

Toledo Time

The task in Game 2 is virtually the same as Game 1: dominate. Sixth-ranked MSU (1-0) is going through its first two-day prep of the season against Toledo (0-1). The Rockets opened their season with a 71-70 loss at Arkansas State that came down to the final seconds.

Toledo was picked to finish second in the MAC in the conference's preseason poll, only behind a Miami (OH) team that put together an undefeated 2025-26 regular season. Tip-off on Thursday is set for 8 p.m. ET; the game can be streamed on Peacock.

Toledo is a better team than Quinnipiac, though, despite the 0-1 start. KenPom ranks the Rockets at No. 141 nationally at the time of this article's inception; Quinnipiac is 278th. The same site gives Michigan State a 98% chance of victory.

"We'll have to play as good or better, I think, to win this game," Izzo said about the Rockets on Tuesday. "And I did not mind the team we played (Quinnipiac). I mean, I thought they had some tough kids, but we made shots early, and that was the difference in the game. This team (Toledo) can make a lot of shots. His (Toledo head coach Tod Kowalczyk's) scoring... he's always been in the 80s. So we'll have our hands full defensively, and hopefully we can do our job offensively."

Offensive-minded has been a very apt way to describe Toledo's playstyle with Kowalczyk. This year included, the Rockets' offense has been ranked higher than their defense on KenPom in all but one of Kowalczyk's 17 seasons in charge. His 2022-23 team was all the way up at fifth on KenPom (a reminder that this is adjusted for opponent strength and overall talent), but all the way down at 295th on defense.

This will also be the second straight season that the Spartans will host UT. MSU cruised during that one, starting the game on a 20-6 run and finishing with a 92-69 victory on Dec. 16, 2025. Toledo's best player in that game, Sonny Wilson (29 points), now plays at South Florida.

UT has reloaded in the portal itself, though. The Rockets have four players on their roster this year with experience at Marquette, DePaul, Providence, and Ohio State. The player from Providence, Rich Barron, was a teammate of Anton Bonke with the Friars during the 2024-25 season.

Marquette transfer Sean Jones will be an interesting task for Michigan State and point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. He dished out nine assists during Toledo's season opener. Two-guard Mynor Strong, one of the Rockets' main returning players, scored 18 points with four steals during the Arkansas State game. Jaylan Ouwinga and Angel Montas Jr. also both scored 16 points for Toledo on Monday.

More Notes on Game

One little storyline to keep an eye on is that this is a two-day prep for Michigan State. The shortened timeline between games can put some strain on players and coaches, and it's a relatively common thing for a team to go through during Big Ten play.

It will happen 13 times this season, in total, and that doesn't include the potential zero-day preps in the Big Ten Tournament or the one-day preps during March Madness. Going through it immediately at the start of the regular season should be beneficial for MSU.

"Our exhibition games, our games as they grow here, the two-day preps, all these things have been good," Izzo said. "Some of them (we) plan; some of them, they happen generically, but I think it's really good so these guys know what a turnaround it is. Now, they're not as tired as they're going to be in January or February, and yet, I think this is a great prep for us, to be honest."

Jesse McCulloch is also expected to play on Thursday night. He missed Monday's game with a "minor concussion," but Izzo says McCulloch is well enough that he "could have played" had the game been on Tuesday. There's nothing to worry about there. The main question will be whether McCulloch or Bonke gets the start. Izzo has called McCulloch the team's "most consistent" big, but Bonke made a pretty good statement against Quinnipiac with a double-double.