It was nearly a month back, yet former Michigan basketball coach John Beilein already had the date circled.
The Hall-of-Famer who led the Wolverines to a pair of national title games in the 2010s has seen it all in Ann Arbor and he knows better than anybody the most important games of the regular season come against Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans.
Michigan leads the series all-time, 104-90, according to U-M’s statistics, but since MSU was added to the Big Ten in 1950, the Spartans hold the edge 73-66. It’s even more lopsided in Michigan State’s favor, 31-16, since the turn of the century. In recent years, the footing has been rather even, with Michigan State leading just 14-13 since 2011.
There have been a number of key games in the series during that time, but people always seem to remember the matchups where both sides were ranked.
When No. 12 U-M (20-5, 12-2 Big Ten) and No. 13 MSU (20-5, 11-3 Big Ten) meet at Crisler Center on Friday evening (8 p.m., Fox) it will be just the eighth time playing as top-15 foes since the turn of the century.
Here’s a look back at what happened the first seven times the rivals met with this much on the line.
*Matchups are listed in chronological order.
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Feb. 12, 2013: No. 8 MSU beats No. 4 Michigan, 75-52, in East Lansing
It was the perfect storm in East Lansing for the Spartans, who led wire-to-wire in one of the more lopsided meetings of this era. Michigan State got out to an early 16-point lead in the first half and led by as much as 30 in the second half when both sides finished the game with reserves on the court.
Gary Harris scored 17 and Derrick Nix had 14 for MSU, while Trey Burke had 18 and Nik Stauskas scored 10 for Michigan, but nobody else had more than five.
“That was the worst we’ve played in a long, long time,” Beilein said afterwards. “Credit Michigan State for that.”
March 3, 2013: No. 4 Michigan tops No. 9 MSU, 58-57, in Ann Arbor
The Wolverines had to wait just three weeks to get their revenge and boy did it come in exhilarating fashion.
Michigan State and Michigan were in the final 30 seconds when the Spartans had the ball trying to drain the clock and get one final shot of when Burke ripped the possession away from Keith Appling at midcourt and took it the other way for a go-ahead layup with 22 seconds left. After MSU’s Nix was fouled, he split the free throws, then State had to foul U-M’s Mitch McGary who missed the front end with 4.9 seconds left and set up one final attempt for Izzo’s team, but a Harris pass attempt was stolen and MSU never got off a shot attempt.
This all came after the Wolverines had blown a 52-42 lead with less than four minutes to play. Burke had 21 points and eight assists and McGary scored 11, while the late Adreian Payne had 17 points and 12 rebounds for Michigan State while Harris added 16.
March 3, 2018: No. 15 Michigan beats No. 2 MSU, 75-64, in New York
This game was the Big Ten tournament semifinal at Madison Square Garden in New York, a place where U-M had won more than 10 times in a row prior to its 89-87 loss to Arkansas in December, and this was one of the most historic games of the run.
Days after a near crash where U-M’s plane slid off the runway, the Wolverines rallied together to win the Big Ten tournament, highlighted by an 11-point win over the Spartans. MSU led by four early in the second half, but a 9-0 run gave Michigan the lead for good and it never looked back.
Mo Wagner, Xavier Simpson and Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman all scored 15 points, Duncan Robinson added 13 off the bench and Charles Matthews scored 12. That was more than enough to overcome MSU which got 17 from Miles Bridges, 13 from Jaren Jackson and 11 from Cassius Winston.
Michigan would beat Purdue the next day in the tournament championship game and then go on to play for the national championship the following month.
Feb. 24, 2019: No. 10 MSU beats No. 7 U-M, 77-70, in Ann Arbor
Both teams entered this game at 13-3 in the league and the winner was going to be in the drivers seat for the Big Ten title moving forward. Michigan led 51-45 in the second half but didn’t score for more than five minutes as MSU took a lead.
It was a poor second half for U-M as MSU went on a 25-9 run over the majority of the period to go up 10 and pull away for the win. Winston never came off the court for the Spartans and finished with 27 points and eight assists while Kenny Goins added 16 points and 11 rebounds, Xavier Tillman scored 14 and Matt McQuaid added 13.
Zavier Simpson led U-M with 19, Ignas Brazdeikis had 16 and nine rebounds, Jordan Poole scored 15 and Jon Teske finished with 10 points and 11 boards.
March 9, 2019: No. 9 MSU beats No. 7 U-M, 75-63, in East Lansing
The two teams met two weeks later with everything on the line. A win for MSU and it would take home at least a share of the Big Ten title with Purdue. A loss, and U-M and MSU would finish in second, one game behind the Boilermakers.
Michigan got off to a hot start, up by 10 just more than five minutes in and up as much as 12 in the first half. But MSU would outscore U-M 52-28 over the final 23 minutes to pull away from Beilein’s squad and clinch a share of the Big Ten title on senior day in East Lansing.
Winston had 23 and seven assists and Tillman scored 17, while Brazdeikis scored 20 and Jordan Poole had 15.
March 17, 2019: No. 6 MSU beats No. 10 U-M, 65-60, in Chicago
The teams met for a third time in just more than three week and this time U-M had a chance to play for something too.
This was the Big Ten tournament championship game at United Center in Chicago and for the third time in as many meetings, U-M got out to an early lead. Up as much as eight in the first half, the lead ballooned to 13 points, 39-26, early in the second half when McQuaid caught fire.
MSU’s sharpshooter scored a career-high 27 points after his friend and teammate Kyle Ahrens got hurt early in the game and led the Spartans to their third rivalry win in less than a month. McQuaid made seven 3-pointers and Winston added 14 points and 11 dimes in the victory.
Brazdeikis had 19 points in the loss, Jordan Poole netted 13 and Jon Teske had 10 points and 10 boards.
Michigan State would go on to defeat No. 1 overall seed Duke in the Elite Eight to go to the program’s eighth final four appearance under Tom Izzo. Michigan would go to the Sweet 16 and get bounced by Texas Tech (which also beat MSU in the Final Four), 63-44.
Jan. 5 2020: No. 14 Michigan State beats No. 12 Michigan, 87-69, in East Lansing
Little did anybody know the world would get shut down by a pandemic just more than two months later, but at the time this game had implications for two teams with designs on runs in March.
In the first meeting with Juwan Howard as a coach in the rivalry, Tom Izzo’s Spartans got the last laugh as they relatively easily dispatched U-M, 87-69. MSU led by double figures in the first half and U-M would never make it closer than nine points as Winston scored a career-high 32 points with nine assists while Tillman added 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Four Wolverines scored in double figures, led by Teske with 15, but a 5 of 23 performance from long ranged doomed U-M in East Lansing and resulted in the Spartans’ fourth consecutive win in the series. Michigan went on to win the second matchup that year in February, 77-68.
Michigan basketball’s record vs. Michigan State in top-15 matchups
Since 2013, Michigan and Michigan State have met seven times as top-15 foes, with an eighth matchup coming Friday.
The Wolverines are 2-5 in those matchups and have lost four straight games, with three happening in 2019 as the Spartans got hot before a run to the Final Four.
Since the Spartans’ Final Four run, the two programs have played 10 times, with Michigan posting a 4-6 record.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan record vs Michigan State in top-15 matchups
