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Before Michigan State gets to Duke, it has to get through LSU

Cassius Winston helped send Michigan State on to the Sweet 16 with a 70-50 victory over Minnesota in the NCAA tournament second round Saturday. Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press

DES MOINES, Iowa — Michigan State and LSU have met just once in basketball, in the 1979 Mideast Region semifinal.

Magic Johnson’s squad defeated the Tigers 87-71 in that one, and the second-seeded Spartans went on to knock off top-seed Notre Dame two days later in Indianapolis en route to the national championship.

A similar yet perhaps more daunting path to what No. 2 seed MSU must do in this year’s East Region to advance to Tom Izzo’s eighth Final Four.