Michigan State basketball: 3 takeaways from blowout of Michigan

A blowout win in Big Ten play is great but when you do it against your most hated rival, it just tastes that much sweeter. Michigan State basketball improved to 13-8 on the season with a 19-point win over Michigan on Tuesday night as the Wolverines faded even further into irrelevancy.

The Spartans are now back to .500 in conference play as well and now Michigan is 7-14 overall and 2-8 in league play.

The first half wasn't pretty as the Spartans were trailing at half while Michigan was shooting a cool 61 percent from the floor, but Michigan State muscled up and out-scored the Wolverines by 21 in the second half to capture the big win.

What did we learn from the Spartans' win (Tom Izzo's 700th)?

3. Rebounding is becoming a major concern

If you're an old-school Michigan State basketball fan, you may want to avert your eyes. The Spartans, once again, lost the rebounding battle and it was by a fairly wide margin for the second game in a row.

Michigan was able to take it to the Spartans on the glass, winning the battle on the boards 34-26. This wasn't a domination, by any means, but for the second game in a row, Michigan State looked like the less aggressive team on the boards which is concerning. That's even more concerning when you think about just how much Tom Izzo harped on rebounding in practice following the Wisconsin loss.

While I'm not smashing the panic button yet, I am very concerned about the rebounding. There's no way Mady Sissoko should have just four rebounds in 18 minutes, Carson Cooper with two in 16 minutes, and Jaxon Kohler has three in 10 minutes. Not good.