If you’re anything like me, reliving Michigan State’s loss to Michigan is just depressing. The Spartans were out-toughed on their own floor, and the more I think about it, the more disgusted I am. Tom Izzo is the same way.
The Hall of Fame head coach watched as his team played a soft brand of basketball for 40 minutes on their own floor, losing to Michigan for the first time in three years.
Michigan leaves East Lansing with all the bragging rights and a first-place spot in the Big Ten standings.
The loss drops Michigan State to 19-3 overall and 9-2 in the Big Ten, so this isn’t exactly the end of the world, but the team has to correct some mistakes in a hurry to avoid one loss turning into a spiral. The schedule coming up is tough, so learning from this and turning it into fuel for a run must happen immediately because a road game against Minnesota is approaching.
After Friday’s loss, though, Izzo took to the podium in his post-game presser to deliver what many expected to be a fiery post-game. It had its moments, but he was more disappointed than anything.
Disappointed in just about everything — including officiating.
"I was disappointed by the officiating but I was more disappointed in my team. I just did not think that we played well enough."
— Spartans Illustrated (@Spartans_Illo) January 31, 2026
Once again, Izzo is right. He’s been right about just about everything over the past couple of years, and this is just another instance. The officiating was terrible on Friday night, both ways.
Both coaches should be upset with how poorly the game was officiated from start to finish.
The Big Ten should review the tape
This isn’t even me saying officiating changed the game because it didn’t have an effect on the final outcome. Michigan was winning that game regardless, and the refs were horrendous for both sides.
To be fair, I’ll defend Michigan first and say that a lot of fouls that were called on Jeremy Fears were a little soft. They rewarded a few too many flops, and I’ll agree with that. He’s been good at foul-baiting all year, so he just continued and was rewarded much more than usual.
On the flip side, the refs were horrendous for State, too.
The Will Tschetter fadeaway — and to the side — 3-point attempt where he jumped into a Michigan State defender who was about three feet away to draw a “foul” was one of the most egregious calls I’ve ever seen. Also, the hook-and-hold was weak on Cam Ward, especially since Aday Mara did it near the end of the first half and it wasn’t called. Also, I recall a play in the first half where a Coen Carr three grazed the rim and Jaxon Kohler got the ball back but the clock didn’t reset and they called a shot clock violation — the clock should’ve been reset and it was never looked at?
From start to finish, the refs did both teams a disservice, and Izzo was right to call them out in his post-game presser. He’ll probably receive a fine for it, but the Big Ten needs to review the tape and punish the officials with a probationary period or something.
At this high of a level, it’s unacceptable to have high school-level officiating.