Michigan State basketball knows it must 'lock in' to face Michigan

EAST LANSING — Its comeback complete, Michigan State basketball’s attention can turn to its showdown at Michigan.

Sometime Thursday, that is.

The Spartans wanted to bask in their Wednesday night rally from an 11-point deficit to a 71-60 win over Rutgers at Breslin Center. Even if it was a victory that gave No. 10 MSU a half-game lead atop the Big Ten standings over No. 7 U-M, which plays at Minnesota on Thursday night.

“We enjoy the win tonight,” senior Kenny Goins said. “And then tomorrow, it’s another game – scouting reports, practice, whatever it may be.”

Tom Izzo and his players are expected to meet with the media to preview the game late Thursday afternoon.

And of course, they realize this is never just another game.

Especially not this year when MSU (22-5, 13-3 Big Ten) travels to Ann Arbor on Sunday to face Michigan at 3:45 p.m. (CBS) at Crisler Center, their first of two highly anticipated regular-season meetings.

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The Spartans dropped their lone regular-season meeting last year to the Wolverines in East Lansing, 82-72, but still went on to capture the outright Big Ten title. However, they got eliminated from the Big Ten tournament semifinals by U-M at Madison Square Garden, 75-64.

Michigan has won three straight since 2017 after MSU won five in a row. The Spartans have taken 25 of the past 37 meetings in the rivalry, though the Wolverines own a 100-81 all-time advantage.

Sunday's game will be just the third time in series history that the two teams are ranked in the Associated Press Top 10, splitting their two meetings in 2013 when Michigan was ranked No. 4 and MSU was ranked No. 8 and No. 9.

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“You just know what the rivalry is about. You know how much energy it is,” said junior point guard Cassius Winston, whose only win over U-M came in 2017 as a freshman. “It comes down to what team plays the hardest. Both teams are really sound teams, and both teams have really good players. The team that plays the hardest is probably gonna win the game.”

Even though No. 15 Purdue looms just behind both teams in the conference standings, the games between the Spartans and Wolverines have been two of the most awaited in college basketball all winter. They will close out the Big Ten regular-season on March 9 at Breslin Center.

While the Spartans had yet to go over scouting reports in depth to start preparing for U-M, they know one thing is critical over the coming days before making the trek 60 miles to the southeast.

“Just lock in,” sophomore Xavier Tillman said. “That’s really it, just lock in.”

Contact Chris Solari at csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.