Ranking Michigan State basketball’s top 3 most hated rivals

2. Wisconsin Badgers (77-58 since 1950)

Wisconsin might be a surprising choice here instead of teams like Illinois, Indiana or even Maryland in recent seasons, but the Badgers have been much more hated by Michigan State fans and players for longer.

This rivalry goes all the way back to the days of Bo Ryan, at least in recent memory, and if you didn’t absolutely hate watching him on the sidelines, reacting to every call (much like rival fans hate Tom Izzo), you probably didn’t have a pulse. The Badgers always had five guys who could shoot from anywhere on the floor on the court at all times and they’d just get hot and stay hot for entire games.

Guys like Frank Kaminsky and Ethan Happ drove Michigan State crazy for years and then we have Jon Leuer, Bronson Koenig, Sam Dekker, Nigel Hayes and currently Brad Davison. Just a ton of guys who are incredibly annoying to watch and they could all take over games.

Don’t even get me started on Brevin Pritzl who I swear would always make a big shot or get hot against MSU despite averaging like 3.5 points per game and he attended Wisconsin for like two straight decades.

Wisconsin and Michigan State have also had some heated battles and while the respect is there, the two teams don’t really like each other.

And no one likes playing at Kohl Center.

Oh, and did I mention Brad Davison? I did? Well, he deserves to be brought up again. The dude is the definition of aggravating.