Michigan State basketball stuns Crisler with 75-62 win over Wolverines to take Big Ten lead
In a mettle-testing moment, Michigan State basketball once again dug deep and found its resolve.
And the Spartans will wake up this weekend back in first place in the Big Ten.
Tre Holloman sparked yet another comeback with three straight 3-pointers, scoring 11 of his 18 points in the second half, and Jase Richardson finished with 21 points for his third game of 20-plus this season as No. 13 MSU rallied for a 75-62 victory over No. 12 Michigan on Friday night at Crisler Center.
After falling behind by as many as eight points in the first half, the Spartans surged out of the break and hit 53.3% of their second-half shots. They finished off a third straight victory and fourth in the last five games with a 9-0 run over the final four-plus minutes.
HOW IZZO HAS DONE PREVIOUSLY:Tom Izzo record vs Michigan: Michigan State coach’s history against Wolverines
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The win gives MSU (22-5, 13-3 Big Ten) a half-game lead atop the conference standings over the Wolverines (20-6, 12-3), who lost their first home game of the season hours after U-M signed first-year coach Dusty May to a contract extension in his first year.
MSU’s third win in six days culminated in chants of “Go Green, Go White” in the final two minutes as the Spartans bled out the clock on a hard-fought battle that improved Tom Izzo’s record against the Wolverines to 35-21 all-time.
Jeremy Fears Jr. scored eight of his 10 points in the second half, including two of the Spartans’ six 3-pointers in the final half. Jaden Akins added 11 points as MSU held U-M star Danny Wolf to just 11 points on 5-for-11 shooting despite the 7-footer adding eight assists and seven rebounds. Vladislav Goldin had 21 points and five boards for the Wolverines but committed four of their 15 turnovers.
The Spartans travel to No. 20 Maryland on Wednesday (6:30 p.m./BTN) and No. 11 Wisconsin on March 2 and head to Iowa on March 6. They host the Wolverines in the regular-season finale March 9.
Going into the game, MSU coach Tom Izzo pointed to turnovers as being a potential deciding factor. The Wolverines were committing 14.4 a game to the Spartans’ 11.8
By halftime, MSU had given the ball away nine times, which led to nine U-M points. Two of those came on missed lobs to Coen Carr on consecutive trips, the first a pass too high from Tre Holloman smacked off the board and led to a Nimari Burnett breakaway dunk the other direction. The second, an attempted quick push back to Carr, resulted in a second straight giveaway by Holloman.
It also didn’t help that MSU struggled to make shots. After hitting five of their first eight to build a 13-6 lead in just under six minutes, the Spartans went ice cold as U-M heated up. MSU went 1 of 12 over an 8:08 stretch and missed eight straight shots as the Wolverines ripped off a 15-0 run to take the lead for the rest of the half.
The hole grew to as many as eight points with 2:21 left before MSU chipped away before halftime. Richardson’s tip-in of his own miss and two free throws, part of his 11-point first half, got the Spartans back within 38-34 at the break.
Where MSU’s guards struggled early, they took control immediately after halftime. Particularly Holloman. The Spartans committed just two turnovers in the final 20 minutes.
A tide-turning 23-11 burst over the first nine-plus minutes out of the break changed the game. Richardson and Fears opened the final half with 3-pointer to help the Spartans seize the lead again for the first time since the midpoint of the first. Then after Michigan got a pair of Goldin buckets to jump back in front, Holloman started to take control.
First, the junior from Minneapolis delivered a lob for a Cooper alley-oop. Then, Holloman flipped out a breakout pass to Richardson, who converted a spin-move layup around U-M’s Tre Donaldson. May called timeout as MSU went up four.
Then it was Holloman’s outside shooting that took over. He went around the world with a 3-pointer in the right corner, then the top of the key, then from the left wing on three straight trips. The Spartans’ lead swelled to eight.
And after a Kohler layup and a Richardson free throw, Fears attacked from the top of the key and sliced through U-M’s zone to finish through contact for a layup. MSU’s lead grew to double digits for the first time, 62-51, with 7:39 left and silenced the Maize-Out Crisler crowd.
The Wolverines chipped away again, cutting it back to six. But Fears banked in his second triple of the half, sending fans to the exits as the Spartans started grabbing one offensive board after another in the final two minutes.
Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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Michigan Wolverines guard Dug McDaniel (0) moves down the court during Michigan’s game against Michigan State at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024.Rebecca Villagracia | MLive.com
FINAL: Michigan State 75, Michigan 62
With first place in the Big Ten on the line, Michigan State pushed past Michigan in the second half for the 13-point win at Crisler Center. The Spartans have now won three straight and it’s their third straight victory in the rivalry. The Wolverines went scoreless for the final 4:12 with Michigan State closed on a 9-0 run.
Fears banked in an open 3-pointer with 2:17 left and Spartans continued to dominate the offensive glass in the final couple minutes as Michigan fans headed for the exits and “go green, go white” chants broke out at Crisler.
Richardson scored 21 to lead the Spartans while Holloman had 18, Akins 11 and Fears 10. Goldin paced the Wolverines with 21, Burnett had 12 and Wolf 11.
Michigan State shot 53.3 percent from the field in the second half, including 6-for-12 from 3-point range. Michigan made just 37.5 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes while hitting only 1 of 10 from beyond the arc.
3:16: Michigan State 68, Michigan 62
Gayle hit a pair of free throws and Wolf got an easy two after a loose ball scramble to cut the deficit to seven. After Carr missed both from the line, Goldin threw down a slam and then scored following an offensive rebound while drawing a foul before missing the and-one. It was an 8-0 run for the Wolverines before Richardson got an easy jumper in the paint then banked one in off the glass. Tschetter and Cooper traded baskets with the Spartans up six at the final media timeout.
7:39: Michigan State 62, Michigan 51
Wolf spun through the lane for a layup to snap a 6-0 run before Kohler scored his first points of the game. On the other end of the floor, Fears drove through traffic for a shot at the rim to give the Spartans their biggest lead of the game at 11. The Wolverines, scoreless for 2:58, are in the bonus the rest of the way.
10:43: Michigan State 57, Michigan 49
Goldin ended the run with a pair of free throws and Burnett hit a 3-pointer for Michigan’s first field goal in nearly four minutes. Holloman knocked down three straight triples as Michigan State matched its largest lead of the game at eight.
13:13: Michigan State 46, Michigan 42
Michigan went scoreless for more than three minutes and the Spartans countered with a 6-0 run. A Richardson layup in transition led to a four-point lead and timeout by the Wolverines.
16:00: Michigan 42, Michigan State 40
Richardson and Fears hit triples coming out of the locker room to give Michigan State a 40-38 advantage before back-to-back baskets by Goldin. Starting forward Jaxon Kohler picked up his third foul and went to the Spartan bench scoreless on 0-for-4 shooting.
HALFTIME: Michigan 38, Michigan State 34
Although Michigan State continued to cough up the ball, the shots finally started dropping. The Spartans made five of six field goals and the teams swapped free throws just before time ran out as the Wolverines took a four-point lead into the locker room.
Burnett has nine points, Goldin eight and Wolf seven to lead a balanced attack for Michigan, which shot 54 percent from the floor in the first half. Richardson scored 11 to pace the Spartans in the opening 20 minutes and Holloman has seven.
3:54: Michigan 28, Michigan State 23
Tre Holloman halted the 15-0 run with a pair of free throws and a jumper for Michigan State’s first made basket in seven minutes. In between those scores, Will Tschetter knocked down a triple. Holloman split a pair of free throws after a technical foul on Michigan before a Burnett dunk on the break.
7:19: Michigan 23, Michigan State 16
Baskets by Rubin Jones and Justin Pippen followed by a triple from Burnett pushed the run to 15-0 while the Spartans looked lost offensively. They missed 11 of 12 shots, have gone scoreless for 5:34 and have a trio of turnovers in that stretch.
11:02: Michigan State 16, Michigan 15
Michigan’s Roddy Gayle missed a pair of free throws and Jaden Akins knocked down a 3-pointer in transition for the Spartans. Danny Wolf rattled in a triple and then delivered a behind-the-back pass on the break as Gayle scored and was fouled. It’s a 7-0 run for the Wolverines and Gayle will have a chance to complete the three-point play with a free throw coming out of the break.
14:09: Michigan State 11, Michigan 6
Jase Richardson got Michigan State started with five quick points on a triple and drive down the lane and early subs Coen Carr and Carson Cooper got on the board early. Cooper scored on an offensive rebound and Carr threw down an alley-oop. Vladislav Goldin scored first in the paint for Michigan and Nimari Burnett had a pair of buckets before the first media timeout.
PREGAME:
ANN ARBOR – Michigan and Michigan State are back to playing meaningful games late in the season.
The No. 12 Wolverines host the No. 14 Spartans on Friday (8 p.m., FOX) with first place in the Big Ten up for grabs. It’s the first matchup with both teams ranked in the top 15 in five years.
Michigan, which closed the Juwan Howard era with an 8-24 record last season, has surged under first-year coach Dusty May and an overhauled roster. The Wolverines have won six straight and have a half-game lead over the Spartans in the Big Ten standings.
Michigan State also opened the season unranked before a 13-game winning streak vaulted the team into the top 10. The Spartans lost three of four before rebounding with wins at Illinois and against Purdue for coach Tom Izzo, who now owns the record for career Big Ten victories.
Izzo owns a 34-21 career record against Michigan after the Spartans took both games last season. Michigan State won 81-62 in East Lansing and 73-63 in Ann Arbor.
GAME INFORMATION:
Who: No. 14 Michigan State (21-5, 12-3) at No. 12 Michigan (20-5, 12-2)
When: Friday, 8 p.m.
RECOMMENDED
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Michigan State snaps five-game losing streak against PurdueFeb. 19, 2025, 4:14 a.m.
Where: Crisler Center (Ann Arbor)
TV: FOX
Latest line: Michigan -3.5
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Tom Izzo entered the 1997-98 season on the hot seat as Michigan State’s basketball coach; he was just 33-27 overall with a couple NIT bids in his first two seasons.
Year 3 was different though. The Spartans were stacked with a slew of young talent out of Flint, Michigan. Boasting a 13-4 record in late January, they found themselves somewhere new under Izzo — nationally ranked for the first time at No. 22.
To mark the occasion, MSU delivered a nationally televised 84-66 blowout of vaunted Indiana. Mateen Cleaves scored 10 and added 13 assists. Charlie Bell had 17. Antonio Smith grabbed 10 rebounds. Morris Peterson came off the bench for 11.
The impressive victory over Bob Knight’s Hoosiers provided a burst of credibility and confidence, propelling the program all the way to the Sweet 16 that year, the Final Four the next and the national title the year after that.
It was a breakout win in a breakout season for the then-42-year-old Izzo, who over the course of the next quarter century-plus would become a Hall of Fame coaching icon. Just last week he passed Knight for the most Big Ten victories ever, with 354.
Working that day for the IU program was a student manager named Dusty May. He was a nobody, a sophomore history major from the little Southern Indiana town of Bloomfield. (May said Knight wouldn’t even learn his name until a year or two later, when he stayed on campus to work summer camps.)
He was another in a long line of basketball-obsessed Hoosiers willing to do pretty much anything to learn from a legend.
Izzo was just an opposing coach that day, but over the years May paid close attention to the Spartan program — the way it was run, the way it was led, the way it succeeded.
“He’s probably the closest to Coach Knight as any coach in the country,” May said, noting that if anyone was to break the Big Ten record, Izzo should be the guy.
On Friday, Dusty May and the now-70-year-old Tom Izzo “meet” again — at least if you are willing to strain the term — when MSU visits Ann Arbor.
Izzo is still where he seemingly always is — head coach of the nationally ranked Spartans (14th in the country with a 21-5 record).
May, 48, is the first-year coach at rival Michigan, his Wolverines (20-5) sitting at No. 12.
The two ancient, bitter rivals sit atop the Big Ten, with eyes on winning the league and perhaps a lot more.
“Coach Knight would always say, if you are in position to win the Big Ten championship, then you are in position to contend for the NCAA championship,” May said.
It isn’t often that a regular season college basketball game bears the significance — narrative or history — of say a big football game, but this one just might.
No, May doesn’t need a victory Friday to prove himself or rocket his career forward — he took mid-major Florida Atlantic to the 2023 Final Four, after all. And no, it wouldn’t be fair, considering how good this Spartan team is, to declare Izzo near the end of his career.
Still, there is something here. May is the latest in a series of Michigan coaches to take run at Izzo through the years. Some have found prolonged success — John Beilein took the program to two NCAA title games — but none have ever been able to knock him off his perch.
Meanwhile, to this day, beating Michigan is an intense motivational point for Izzo, who no matter his successes still harbors a measure of competitive hatred over a program he once chased and forever competes against, especially in local recruiting. He’s 34-21 against Michigan.
“The rivalry,” Izzo said Thursday, “is the rivalry.”
May knows that. Being part of this kind of high-level, high-stakes game is part of what drew him to Ann Arbor after six seasons at FAU. He certainly had options, but it was more than just Big Ten membership, the program’s history or its recruiting potential that made Michigan appealing.
In an era of fluid rosters due to the open transfer portal, May believes one key to stability is to be at a university that offers far more than just athletics. He notes that while for “star players it’s always going to be about basketball,” he thinks having a school with enormous resources and academic might can help keep young, developing players and program cornerstones from jumping ship. That’s how you build champions.
And that, he said, is Michigan with its world-class academic offerings.
“When it’s not just basketball, it becomes very difficult to leave,” May said.
The early results couldn’t be much better. May inherited an 8-24 team and a lot of dysfunction from his predecessor, Juwan Howard. With nine players departing, the roster needed an overhaul. Expectations were low outside the program, but not for May and his staff — at least once he landed guard Tre Donaldson (Auburn) and 7-footers Danny Wolf (Yale) and Vladislav Goldin (FAU) from the portal.
“Once we got the two big guys and Tre, I thought we had a NCAA tournament team,” May said.
It’s what he expects, if not more, here — “I realistically believe we can be a Big Ten contender every year,” May said.
Is May settled in for the long haul, the way Izzo set up shop in East Lansing? Is this one of those generational battles — not necessarily the passing of a baton because Izzo is not fading, but at least a moment in time?
Much of that is up to May, and not just whether he can win as big as he has across his career. Indiana, his alma mater, has a job opening, after all, and there may be nothing Hoosier fans want more than to bring their old student manager home.
May, however, may already be set up in Ann Arbor. One son, Charlie, is a walk-on junior. Another, Eli, is a freshman team manager. The chance at a Michigan degree for both sons is vitally important for both May and his wife, Anna. (Eldest son Jack graduated from Florida and is working in the Miami Heat video department).
“We’ve settled into a unique living situation, with both sons in college here,” May said. “It would be tough to uproot.”
If so, then this is potentially the first rivalry game of a potentially long Michigan career, the first rivalry battle against the Green and White.
It’s fitting that it’s against Izzo, who has been a force at Michigan State and in the Big Ten since that day all those years ago when he broke the Spartans into the national rankings and then served notice by blowing out Bob Knight for everyone to see … including an ambitious, if anonymous, student manager across the way.
