Fort Wayne, IN (Betting Express) - The IUPU-Fort Wayne Mastodons have the privilege of hosting the nation's fifth-ranked team this evening, as the Michigan State Spartans of the Big Ten come to town.

Michigan State began its season on Sunday with a 100-62 romp over Idaho. The non-conference schedule gets much tougher in the coming weeks for the Spartans, who will take part in the Old Spice Classic over Thanksgiving weekend. Some of the teams involved in that tournament are Maryland, Gonzaga, Oklahoma State and Tennessee. Tom Izzo's team will also do battle with top- ranked North Carolina just a few days later, and the club will face the Texas Longhorns in Houston on December 20th.

As for IPFW, it was handled easily by Xavier in last Friday's season opener, as that game ended in a 71-43 defeat. Only two starters are back in place for the Mastodons, but both were double-digit scorers in 2007-08.

Michigan State has won all four of its previous meetings with IUPU-Fort Wayne, including a 79-57 triumph in last season's matchup.

There is a solid amount of returning talent in place for Michigan State. Junior forward Raymar Morgan (14.0 ppg, 6.1 rpg) is back, and so too is sophomore guard Kalin Lucas (10.3 ppg and 137 assists). Senior center Goran Sutton figures to have things under control in the paint after posting 9.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per clash in 2007-08. In the opener against Idaho, Morgan nailed 7-of-8 shots from the floor in only 20 minutes of work and finished with 21 points. Chris Allen also netted 21 points in just 19 minutes, and Lucas had 13 points and nine assists with zero turnovers. Suton scored 10 points for the Spartans, who shot a stellar 59.6 percent from the floor, including 11-of-21 from three-point range. They also racked up 23 assists against nine turnovers and finished with a 21-10 edge in points from the foul line.

Ben Botts posted 10.1 ppg for IPFW last season, and David Carson was slightly more productive with his 11.0 ppg. Still, fourth-year head coach Dan Fife clearly has a great deal of work to do, especially judging by the team's performance in the opener. The Mastodons connected on only 25 percent of their field goal attempts in the tilt, including a 3-of-15 showing from three-point range. They finished the game with a mere six assists against 14 turnovers and suffered a 46-31 rebounding deficit. Defensively, IPFW allowed Xavier to make good on 51.1 percent of its field goal attempts. Clearly, the challenge will be even greater in this second game, so the Mastodons have to play much better just to keep the score respectable.