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State of play
Michigan State holds off Purdue for rare win at Mackey Arena. Also on Thursday, High Point, UMBC, UNC Wilmington, Morehead State and Bethune-Cookman all claimed regular-season titles. Plus: Tinkle's out at Oregon State, we preview a massive Illinois-Michigan game, the teams who could claim top seeds in league tourneys this weekend, and much more.
Tristan Freeman
February 27, 2026
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1. Michigan State finds a way at Purdue
It took a few years, but Michigan State finally won again at Purdue. With plenty of drama.
The Spartans led No. 8 Purdue by eight points with just under four minutes left, and had to endure an offensive drought and a couple tense moments in the final seconds before prevailing, 76-74. It was Michigan State’s first win at Mackey Arena since 2014.
"We are going to try to enjoy this,” Spartans coach Tom Izzo said. “As we all know, not a statistics guy, but we haven't won here much."
No. 13 Michigan State (23-5, 13-4 Big Ten) got a balanced scoring night from all seven rotation players, but it was big man Carson Cooper who did most of the damage (15 points and six rebounds) and earned praise from Izzo afterward. Jeremy Fears finished with 12 points and six rebounds, while Kur Teng chipped in with 13 points off the bench, including three of the team’s six made three-pointers.
For Purdue (22-6, 12-5), it's the second home loss in three games, including last week’s home defeat to Michigan. It was also a balanced effort, with Smith leading the team with 12 points and 10 assists. He became the 5th player in D-I history with over 1,000 career assists, and is 72 from tying Bobby Hurley for the all-time record.
A key stat was the Spartans turning nine Boilermaker turnovers into 19 points. “Not to say they couldn’t score in the half court, but you’d rather have them earn it that way than us turning the basketball over and them getting 19 points on nine turnovers,” coach Matt Painter said.
The loss dropped Purdue in 5th place in the Big Ten standings, denying them a double-bye for the Big Ten Tournament. Now, they’ll have to handle business on the road, taking on Ohio State and Northwestern in the next couple of games.
Michigan State is tied with Illinois and Nebraska for second in the standings. It plays Sunday at Indiana.
2. High Point clinches Big South + other results
High Point (27-4, 15-1) won 79-73 at Presbyterian, led by 14 points and five assists from Rob Martin. That was expected. Unexpected was Winthrop losing 86-84 at Charleston Southern (14-16, 5-10), which got 24 points off the bench from Jaquias Franklin. One of the big factors? Winthrop didn’t have big man Logan Duncomb for most of the game.
Duncomb (19 ppg and 9.3 rpg), played just nine minutes before suffering a potentially serious ankle injury. With the conference tournament starting next week, his absence would be brutal to Winthrop (20-10, 12-3) pushing High Point for the autobid.
Other notable Thursday results:
St. Bonaventure 94, Rhode Island 76: St. Bonaventure (15-13, 4-11 A-10) snapped a three-game skid, led by 21 points and 10 rebounds from Cayden Charles. Rhode Island (15-13, 6-9) may end up playing in the first round of the A-10 Tournament.
UNC Wilmington 88, North Carolina A&T 65: UNCW (25-4, 14-2 CAA) clinched at least a share of the regular season title, led by 19 points from Patrick Wessler.
Charleston 85, Hampton 71: Locked in the 2 seed for the CAA Tournament is Charleston (20-10, 13-4 CAA), led by 21 points from Martin Kalu.
Monmouth 82, Stony Brook 69: Jason Rivera-Torres had 25 points and six rebounds for Monmouth (15-14, 9-7 CAA), but the big story was Erik Pratt of Stony Brook (17-12, 9-7) getting ejected after spitting on a fan.
UMBC 70, Bryant 58: UMBC (19-8, 12-2 AEC) earned at least a share of the regular-season title.
Bethune-Cookman 76, Grambling 71: A second-half comeback propelled Bethune-Cookman (16-13, 13-3 SWAC) to the road win and its first regular-season title since joining the SWAC.
Wichita State 88, Memphis 82: Kenyon Giles scored 20 of his 22 total points in the second half for Wichita State (19-10, 11-5 American). Dug McDaniel finished with 29 points for Memphis (12-16, 7-8), which has lost five-straight games.
Florida Atlantic 77, Temple 73: That’s five-straight losses for Temple (15-13, 7-8 American). Kanaan Carlyle led FAU (16-13, 8-8) with 22 points and six rebounds.
Kennesaw State 74, Liberty 65: The Flames (23-5, 15-2 CUSA) have lost two straight after a 15-0 start to league play. RJ Johnson scored 25 points for Kennesaw (17-11, 9-8).
Sam Houston 100, Florida International 67: Kashie Natt (18 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists) helped Sam Houston (20-8, 12-5 CUSA) remain in second in CUSA.
St. Thomas 84, North Dakota State 62: North Dakota State (23-7, 13-2 Summit League) has already clinched the 1 seed for the conference tournament, but St. Thomas (22-8, 11-4) will be a threat.
Oral Roberts 102, Denver 80: The individual star of the night goes to Ty Harper, scoring a career-high 47 points for Oral Roberts (8-22, 3-12 Summit League).
Montana State 84, Portland State 69: The upset win by Montana State (16-13, 10-6 Big Sky) kept Portland State (18-9, 12-4) from clinching a regular-season title and 1 seed in the Big Sky Tournament.
Eastern Washington 82, Northern Colorado 72: Kiree Huie produced 23 points and 10 rebounds for Eastern Washington (12-17, 10-6 Big Sky), which remained tied with Montana State for second place.
Utah Valley 79, Tarleton State 72: The battle between first and last place in the WAC standings went as expected, with Utah Valley (21-7, 11-4 WAC) getting the win to stay on top.
Utah Tech 85, Abilene Christian 81: A 47-point first-half effort allowed Utah Tech (18-12, 11-5 WAC) to stay within striking range of the top seed in the WAC.
Cal Baptist 68, UT-Arlington 56: Dominique Daniels scored 28 points for Cal Baptist (20-8, 10-5 WAC), which stayed close in the league race.
Morehead State 76, Little Rock 70: Morehead State (19-12, 15-5 OVC) remained in first place and claimed a share of the league crown thanks to George Marshall and Jon Carroll combining for 50 points.
Tennessee State 79, Southeast Missouri State 71: Tennessee State (20-9, 14-5 OVC) rallied over SEMO (18-12, 13-6) and stayed half a game back of Morehead State.
Hawaii 77, UC Davis 73: Hawaii (20-7, 12-5 Big West) nearly blew a 12-point halftime lead, but claimed a road win and stayed atop the league. Marcus Wilson had 25 points for UC Davis (17-12, 10-8).
UC Irvine 68, Cal State Northridge 67: Cal State Northridge (18-11, 11-6 Big West) overcame a 12-point deficit and lead late until Irvine (19-10, 12-5) got the thrilling game-winning basket from Derin Seran.
Cal Poly 102, Long Beach State 92: Cal Poly (13-16, 9-8 Big West) won this shootout thanks to 57 combined points from Hamad Mousa and Cayden Ward. The loss took Long Beach (8-21, 4-13) out of contention for the Big West Tournament.
UC San Diego 84, Cal State Bakersfield 72: Ronald Jessamy scored a career-high 40 points for Bakersfield (8-21, 2-15 Big West), but it wasn’t enough to avoid its 12th-straight defeat. UC San Diego (20-9, 10-7) got 21 points and seven rebounds from Hudson Mayes.
Long Island 73, Chicago State 56: Jamal Fulled scored 24 points for LIU (20-10, 14-3 NEC), who already clinched the regular-season title and 1 seed.
Central Connecticut 80, Mercyhurst 78: Darin Smith Jr. finished with 24 points for Central Connecticut (17-11, 11-6 NEC), which remained behind LIU.
Stonehill 103, Saint Francis 77: Davane Hackett went for a career-high 40 points to lead Stonehill (11-19, 8-9 NEC).
3. Oregon State moves on from Tinkle
The coaching carousel already has five programs in play — Kansas State, Air Force, Cal State Bakersfield, San Diego and Tarleton State — and one more got added on Thursday.
BTW: paid subscribers already know what programs might be next. Learn more here.
