Michigan State has won 12 games in a row, beating Illinois last Sunday before going to New York to beat Rutgers at Madison Square Garden.
The win over Illinois (arguably Michigan State's best victory of the season) was met with some controversy as Illini fans called foul on the refs, claiming the game was "rigged" and the refs were "crooked" because their best player, Kasparas Jakucionis, fouled out after playing just nine minutes.
Heck, even Brad Underwood got in on the action, saying that he spoke with the Big Ten about the officiating and they agreed that it was questionable, apparently.
The week of complaining about the refs and calling Michigan State "not as good" as Illinois despite winning finally caught up to the Illini on Thursday as they were smacked by Maryland, 91-70, at home. With the loss, Illinois fell to 5-4 in the Big Ten. The Illini have since added another win over Northwestern to improve to 6-4, but the loss to Maryland may have just crushed their Big Ten hopes. And Jakucionis played the whole game.
In what can only be considered karma for a week straight of complaining about officiating in a loss to Michigan State in East Lansing, Illinois was manhandled by Maryland in Champaign to essentially be removed from the Big Ten title race -- for the time being. If the Illini lose just 1-2 more games, there's a chance they could win a share of the conference title, but getting caught up in the "Michigan State benefitted from weak calls" narrative backfired.
Oh, and Underwood gave Michigan State no credit for getting Jakucionis in foul trouble and holding him to three points which made this loss to Maryland even sweeter.
Maryland served up some instant karma. Hopefully Michigan State can sweep the season series.
Michigan State now controls its own destiny with a rematch slotted for Feb. 15.