The Michigan-Michigan State rivalry reached a fever pitch at the tail end of John Beilein’s tenure. The Wolverines and Spartans played five of the most high-stakes and memorable games the rivalry had seen between the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.
The Wolverines swept in 2018 and advanced to the Final Four, while the Spartans swept in 2019 and advanced to the Final Four.
For various reasons, the rivalry never reached the same volume during Juwan Howard’s tenure. Howard’s best team faced Tom Izzo’s worst, and Izzo’s best team faced Howard’s worst. The games were intense, but the stakes didn’t match.
Almost six years to the date of Michigan’s home game against Michigan State in 2019, the rivalry feels back at full roar (Friday, 8:00 p.m., FOX). Both teams are knotted at the top of the conference standings, and tonight’s winner will sit alone in first place with two weeks to play.
It’s a rivalry that feels alive again and a Michigan State team that looks like Michigan State again. The Spartans rebound, run, defend, and score inside in a way they haven’t for five years.
It might be Dusty May’s first foray into a rivalry, but his first shot at Michigan State will come against the real thing. Stack up the four factors and adjusted efficiencies in Bart Torvik’s “similar profile” tool, and it spits out the 2009 Spartans as the top comparison for this MSU team—that Kalin Lucas, Raymar Morgan, and Durrell Summers squad that won the Big Ten by four games and rebounded its way to the national title game.
The Spartans
Fans and media spend a lot of time discussing what Michigan State doesn’t do on offense. If you follow college basketball, you know Michigan State is a bad shooting team.
The Spartans rank 335th in 3-point volume (32.1% of attempts), 354th in 3-point accuracy (29.1%), and 359th in percentage of points scored from 3-point range. There are only five teams in the country — three MEAC, one WAC and one AAC — that are less reliant on the 3-point shot.
Despite that glaring and oft-discussed weakness, Michigan State is still good at scoring the basketball. The Spartans are ranked 26th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency and third in the Big Ten at 1.07 points per possession.
How does Michigan State do it? Free throws and rebounds. The Spartans lead the Big Ten in both categories, grabbing 37% of their misses and getting to the line 39 times per 100 shot attempts. They don’t just get to the line; they also shoot 80.4% there — another league-leading statistic.
Even if the shooting numbers aren’t elite — 52.2 eFG% (8th Big Ten) and 54.2% 2-point shooting (7th Big Ten) — the Spartans are creating more dangerous scoring opportunities than they did the last few years.
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