Both the men's and women's basketball teams from Michigan State University have reached the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tournament.

Michigan State's mens cagers earned their eighth trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 in the last 12 years. The Spartans will face Kansas in the Midwest Regional semifinal TONIGHT (Friday, March 27 @ in Indianapolis, Ind). If you're stuck working or something, I think that the Basketball Gods will forgive you if you watch the game online. As the tale of the tape explains, there's a bit of grudge match element to tonight's game (and you can bet Izzo will be watching the clock!):

Kansas defeated Michigan State, 96-86, in overtime in the 1986 Sweet 16 in a controversial finish. With 2:20 left in the game and MSU leading, 76-72, the clock did not run for approximately 15 seconds. MSU led 80-74 with just over a minute to play, but KU scored six straight points, the final basket came on a tip-in from Archie Marshall with :10 seconds left - 10 seconds that should never have happened.

Fresh off a surprising but convincing upset victory over Duke, the Michigan State women's basketball team heads to California this afternoon in preparation for the NCAA Tournament Berkeley Regional and a date with No. 4-seed Iowa State on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN. Was it really an upset though? The Spartans' have laid down the D this year:

The 2008-09 Michigan State team has a chance to finish the season as one of the greatest defensive teams in program history. Currently this year's team has allowed the fewest points per game (54.9) since 1974-75 and owns the lowest field goal percentage defense (34.5%) since records were kept for the 1976-77 season. Since the addition of the 3-point line to the women's game for the 1987-88 season, the Spartans' 26.5% is second to only the first year of the line. Also, this year's squad has the best rebound margin (+7.7) since opposing rebounds were kept in 1987-88.

Go Green, Go White!