It’s been years since there was a Michigan vs Michigan State basketball game this meaningful.
Obviously last year’s season finale against the Wolverines was expected to be for the Big Ten title, but a slip up by the Wolverines down the stretch made it a mere formality. The Spartans would go on to win that game, Tre Holloman got into a scuffle with LJ Cason while defending tradition, and Michigan State would hang a banner moments later.
This season’s late-January showdown tops that one.
But is this the most anticipated Michigan vs Michigan State game ever? It’s hard to say.
Let’s look back at some other classics and see where this one stacks up.
Past Michigan vs Michigan State basketball classics
Obviously looking back at the “classics” would mean the anticipation leading up to the huge showdown rather than the result because there have been some incredible finishes that didn’t happen in highly-anticipated games.
I can’t speak on the pre-Tom Izzo era because I was not only enough to sense anticipation, but taking a trip down memory lane over the past three decades, there have been some huge showdowns.
There was a ranked game between the two in 1998 that the Spartans won, but Michigan was barely a top 25 team, so I’m not sure that one truly qualifies. When I think about anticipation, I think of two top-ranked teams battling it out with conference title hopes on the line. One happened back when I was a senior at Michigan State in 2013. That was the loudest I can remember the Breslin Center being as a student, and I don’t think that’s ever been topped.
Michigan State throttled Michigan in that game and the Wolverines were ranked No. 5 at the time. The school down the road was talking crazy heading into that one, so it was definitely anticipated.
There was another top-10 battle in 2019 that the Spartans won in East Lansing that secured a Big Ten title which may taken the cake as most anticipated. The Big Ten Tournament game a week later was also wildly anticipated.
In my opinion, the most anticipated games were/are in this order:
- 2019 vs. No. 7 Michigan (East Lansing) — MSU won 75-63
- 2013 vs. No. 5 Michigan (East Lansing) — MSU won 75-52
- 2026 vs. No. 3 Michigan (East Lansing)
- 2019 vs. No. 7 Michigan (Big Ten Tournament — MSU won 65-62
Is this year’s the most anticipated Michigan vs. Michigan State game ever? No, but it’s darn close.