No. 8 Michigan State at No. 3 Michigan Basketball Preview

A narrow win over a top-5 Nebraska team set up a huge test in East Lansing a few days later for the No. 3 Michigan Wolverines. That tone-setting takedown of the then-No. 7 Michigan State Spartans put the Wolverines in a strong position in the Big Ten Standings, and subsequent victories over Purdue, Illinois, and plenty of others has made Sunday’s regular season finale moot in terms of the conference crown.

Of course, the return game in the head-to-head is far from meaningless. Michigan is still competing for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, and rivalry games always matter, regardless of how the standings sit. The visitors have plenty to play for themselves, as well, vying for seeing in both postseason affairs. Still, the banner is going up one way or the other, as the Big Ten title race has been over for a while now.

Advertisement

No. 8 Michigan State (25-5, 15-4) at No. 3 Michigan (28-2, 18-1)

Date & Time: Sunday, Mar. 8, 4:30 p.m. ET
Location: Crisler Center, Ann Arbor, MI
TV/Streaming: CBS

The Wolverines stormed out way ahead in January’s victory and led by 16 at halftime, but unsurprisingly, State came all the way back. In fact, the home team even took the lead with under eight minutes remaining before Michigan closed out the game on a 26-12 run. Yaxel Lendeborg and Elliot Cadeau were instrumental in the monumental win, but really just about the whole lineup played an important role that evening.

As an aside, I believe a win would be the first time Michigan would have gone 4-0 against Michigan State and Ohio State in a regular season since 1993-94 (Year 3 of the Fab Five — well, of what remained). Regardless, it certainly has not been done since the conference expanded to 12…or 14…or 18…so this would be a massive achievement.

Two Stats to Watch

Michigan State OReb: 37.4% (2nd B1G)

The Spartans grabbed 37.5% of their misses in East Lansing, and this is an evergreen (and white?) problem area when facing Tom Izzo. Few teams are better at getting these…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/no-8-michigan-state-no-120000667.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-03-08 12:00:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.