GREEN & WHITE BASKETBALL

Spartans look to Kansas without Gavin Schilling

Joe Rexrode
Detroit Free Press
Duke guard Quinn Cook  lays the ball up past Michigan State Spartans forward Gavin Schilling in the second half of the 2015 NCAA Men's Division I Championship semi-final game at Lucas Oil Stadium.

EAST LANSING - Two big men who would play key roles in Tuesday's game between No. 13 Michigan State (1-0) and No. 4 Kansas (1-0) aren't expected to play.

MSU junior center Gavin Schilling is out with turf toe and is "three days to three days," Tom Izzo said to said, rather than the usual day to day. Kansas freshman center Chieck Diallo, MVP of the most recent McDonald's All-Star game, is still waiting to be cleared by the NCAA, with no indications that will happen in time for the Champions Classic matchup (10 p.m., ESPN) at Chicago's United Center.

Would the competitor in Izzo rather see Diallo?

"Hell no, I don't want to see him!" he joked today at his news conference, adding that he hopes Diallo is cleared for the sake of Kansas coach Bill Self -- right after this game.

As always, Izzo sees this game as one that will benefit his team down the road, but wants the Spartans to win more of these early-season, high-profile matchups.

With the MSU football team facing a top-10 matchup Saturday and Ohio State and MSU one of three schools with top-15 football and men's basketball teams right now, Izzo said: "How does it get better if you're at MSU?'

The other two schools are North Carolina and Oklahoma.