Ahead of the rivalry game on Friday, Michigan head coach Dusty May, Danny Wolf and more spoke about his view of the rivalry game from afar and preparing for MSU pushing the pace:
The stakes couldn’t be much higher for Friday’s heavyweight matchup between the No. 12 Michigan Wolverines and the No. 14 Michigan State Spartans.
With Michigan ahead of Michigan State by half a game for the lead in the Big Ten, the winner of Friday’s primetime matchup (8 p.m. on FOX) will take sole possession of first place in the league less than three weeks until the Big Ten Tournament .
In one corner, we have a Big Ten newbie in Dusty May, who has led Michigan to an impressive 20-5 overall record and a 12-2 record in the conference. May has the Wolverines on a six-game winning streak, with the most recent wins coming against the reigning Big Ten champion Purdue Boilermakers and the rival Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus.
In the other corner sits Basketball Hall of Famer Tom Izzo. His Spartans are heating up at the perfect time, winning their last two games against quality opponents, Illinois and Purdue. When you factor in Michigan’s five vacated wins from the start of Izzo’s head coaching tenure, the MSU legend is 31-14 all-time against the Wolverines.
But then again, Michigan has proven it knows how to win close games. Even in Juwan Howard’s rocky tenure, the Wolverines were 4-4 against the Spartans, and never lost to them at home.
In his weekly media availability, May was asked about his initial impression of this rivalry from not-so-far away, growing up in Indiana.
“Every game I watched, it was obvious the amount of intensity and passion for the game. And it was typically two really good basketball teams, going tooth and nail,” May said. “It seemed like it was always a nationally televised game, either during the week or on a Saturday or Sunday. If it was on, I was usually going to try to check it out.”
May said he often talks to former players, who have had this game circled on their calendars since the schedule came out.
“I started getting texts about a week ago of people coming in for the MSU game, and I was saying ‘We play OSU first,’” May said. “People are obviously very, very excited. We know what it means, but we also have to focus on us playing really good basketball against a quality team.”
He’s not the only one seeing the excitement. Danny Wolf, who grew up a Michigan fan, is seeing it, too.
“The past few days, my timeline has been filled with Michigan/Michigan State,” Wolf said on Wednesday when asked about rivalry games he remembers from the past. “Seeing those videos brings back some of those memories, obviously the Trey Burke steal.”
This is Wolf’s first time playing in the rivalry game. Nimari Burnett, one of the few Wolverines that has played in this rivalry, is 0-2 in this game. Burnett is motivated to pick up his first rivalry win and was asked about what he told teammates in terms of preparing for what should be an intense game.
“(I told them) just to be ready for it, just like the other one against Ohio State,” Burnett said. “Obviously it’s a little bit more on the basketball end as far as Michigan State for us, and it’s something to be prepared for and be ready for, be ready for the intensity and the rivalry game we all get pumped.”
“Honestly, I’ve had all the games marked on my calendar that we didn’t win last year, whatever the team was, but especially these, the two match-ups we have against them.”
Izzo teams typically have a clear identity — they don’t always have the most fluid half-court offense, but they play hard. They rebound the ball well (18th in offensive rebounding percentage on KenPom), they defend well (22nd in adjusted defensive efficiency) and they love to play fast and get out in transition.
After what’s been a pretty solid year on the defensive end of the floor, the Wolverines struggled to get stops against the Buckeyes on Sunday. OSU also got more than a few points in transition, doubling the Wolverines in fast-break points (12-6).
Michigan is going to need to play better transition defense against a Spartan team that will take advantage of lapses and split-second mistakes.
“They play so many guys, they’re always fresh, they get out in transition quicker than I’ve ever seen in terms of college,” Wolf said. “We have our hands full, they are a really well-coached team, they have a lot of guys in the rotation to keep them fresh, so I’m excited for the challenge.”
The Wolverines are no strangers to playing fast as well (53rd in adjusted pace on KenPom), but in the words of Phil Martelli , the Wolverines need to stay under control and play quick, not fast. May also spoke on the importance of staying steady and playing good defense off both makes and misses, with taking advantage of the latter practically being a part of Michigan State’s identity.
“We try to emphasize running the floor like they do and some other elite teams that do it,” May said. “We probably do it at a B, they probably do it at an A. So we got to get a little better with the way we play — getting great shots on offense and not having that lag time of relaxing because something went well or dropping our head because something went poorly, because the next thing is going to happen very quickly against Michigan State.”
Crisler Center has been sold out for nearly every game this season, and this game will be no different. Michigan-Michigan State is always a raucous atmosphere, something Wolf knows from his years of fandom.
“It’s what you play for, it’s why I came to Michigan, it’s why we’re all here,” Wolf said when asked about the anticipated environment. “This is what makes Big Ten basketball and college basketball so exciting, games like this, this late in the season, a storied rivalry. As loud as it’s going to be, I hope it’s mostly going to be for us … I know I speak for all of our teammates when I say that we’re so excited.”