To understand how much this one stung Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, whose team swept the season series against in-state rival Michigan last season and had won seven in a row over the Wolverines at the Breslin Center dating to 2018, all anyone needed to see was the consternation twisted into his face in the waning moments, the game already out of reach. There stood Izzo, already the recipient of a technical foul, bellowing at the referee while flanked by assistant coach Saddi Washington, who was there to make sure the Hall of Famer didn’t push things too far.
So much about the preceding two-plus hours had irked Izzo. From his team’s horrifically slow start in the opening half to what Michigan State believed was an unfair whistle from the officials. From a furious second-half comeback that finally showcased what the Spartans look like at their best to the final five minutes in which Izzo’s crew surrendered a backbreaking 20-7 run after briefly taking the lead.
This was arguably the most anticipated regular-season matchup between the Spartans and Wolverines in decades, the highest-ranked battle this rivalry had ever seen, and for most of Friday evening, Izzo knew that Michigan was the better team. The Wolverines led for nearly 37 minutes in an eventual 83-71 win.
Here are my takeaways:
1. Matchup of old school vs. new school swings toward Michigan
EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN: Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo during the second half against Michigan at Breslin Center on January 30, 2026. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
As so many coaching icons have opted for retirement in recent years — from Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams to Jay Wright, Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun, among others — it’s left Izzo as one of the leading voices in college basketball, a long-toothed sage with more experience and more success than seemingly everyone he faces. When issues arise across the sport, like the recent hullabaloo surrounding player eligibility, Izzo’s is the voice that tends to cut through the noise like a knife.
Which is why, toward the end of Friday night’s game, it was so difficult not to envision some of the news conferences and other public forums Izzo has used to lament the transfer portal in recent years, to rail against the unfettered player movement that continues to revolutionize roster building across the sport. The Wolverines arrived at the Breslin Center with a roster infused by the second-best transfer portal haul in the country, according to 247Sports, trailing only St. John’s. More than 50 spots behind Michigan, at No. 56 overall in the transfer class rankings, sat the Spartans and their old-school coach.
Like it or not, the discrepancy in how these two rosters were constructed told the story of Friday’s game. All three of the Wolverines’ leading scorers were high-priced additions via the transfer portal, which speaks to head coach Dusty May’s modern stewardship of the program. Forward Yaxel Lendeborg from UAB scored 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, guard Elliot Cadeau from North Carolina scored 17 points and dished out six assists and forward Morez Johnson Jr. from Illinois chipped in 12 points and four rebounds. Even former UCLA center Aday Mara contributed eight points and four rebounds.
The Spartans, meanwhile, did not get a single point from anyone who began their collegiate career outside of East Lansing, relying almost exclusively on the program’s ability to develop young talent into mature stars. It’s a method that has served Izzo well for ages and worked again this year with point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. and power forward Jaxon Kohler. But competing for national championships is difficult when other programs are more willing to embrace the tools at everyone’s disposal.
2. Yaxel Lendeborg must be more assertive for Michigan to win it all
EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN: Yaxel Lendeborg dunks against Michigan State at Breslin Center on January 30, 2026. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
There are so many things to like about Lendeborg, who came to Michigan as the No. 1 overall player in the transfer portal following two stellar seasons at UAB. His 6-foot-9, 240-pound frame screams prototypical NBA wing, and his measurements aren’t far off from the body type of one LeBron James. He can, even at that size, handle the ball like a guard and initiate offense when necessary. There’s nothing to question about what he offers defensively, either, routinely flashing enough versatility and quickness to guard players of all shapes and sizes.
Yet as obvious as Lendeborg’s talents clearly are — he was widely projected as a first-round pick in last year’s NBA Draft had he decided to turn pro instead of transferring to Michigan — there are rumblings about his assertiveness in critical moments. Lendeborg is so unselfish, so willing to defer to his teammates, that he’s only attempted more than 11 shots in a game twice since a non-conference win over La Salle on Dec. 21. From that day forward, his scoring average is just 11.9 points per game — respectable, certainly, but far from what most expected from a player of his caliber.
A significant chunk of the worry surrounding Lendeborg revolves around the 3-point line, where he shot 35.7% for UAB last season only to watch his percentage plummet to 30.3% so far this season. The micro view is even more concerning: Lendeborg entered Friday’s game having only made seven of his last 40 attempts (17.5%) from beyond the arc and then shot 1-for-4 against the Spartans, with his lone make coming early in the first half.
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Given the breadth of Lendeborg’s enviable talent set, it’s simple to ascertain him scoring with ease at pivotal junctures, heaping the initiative on his personal shoulders. However except for one driving layup with 2:33 remaining — a basket that prolonged Michigan’s result in 71-65 — Lendeborg was largely quiet when the Wolverines have been teetering. Almost 9 minutes of sport time elapsed and not using a discipline purpose for Lendeborg within the second half amid his workforce’s most pressure-packed stretch of the season. And whereas he helped safe the victory with six free throws when the rating was out of attain, finally main the workforce in scoring and rebounding, he wants to search out extra consistency because the postseason approaches.
3. Overreliance on Fears hints at Michigan State’s ceiling
EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN: Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears Jr. drives to the basket towards Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg on January 30, 2026. (Photograph by Rey Del Rio/Getty Photographs)
Simply as they’ve all season, Michigan State’s offensive possession started to fall into a well-known sample throughout Friday’s sport towards the Wolverines. Second after second, dribble after dribble, motion after motion, the present belonged to Fears, whose stranglehold on the ball by no means appeared to relinquish. He probed and penetrated to create his personal photographs. He slalomed his manner round screens from the Spartans’ front-court towers. He drew fouls at a powerful fee to fabricate journeys to the free-throw line when all the pieces else he and his teammates tried appeared to fail amid a primary half marred by 27% taking pictures.
Shut observers of the Spartans will know that nothing about this was notably uncommon; it’s the way in which Fears has been pressured to play all season. A obvious lack of depth at each guard positions implies that Fears, a redshirt sophomore, shoulders one of many heaviest workloads within the Big Ten. He leads the workforce in scoring at 14.1 factors per sport and ranks second nationally in assists with 8.9 per sport, trailing solely Purdue level guard Braden Smith in that class. He entered Friday’s sport having assisted on 51.6% of Michigan State’s discipline objectives this season — the very best fee within the nation, according to KenPom — and ranks fifth within the Huge Ten in PRPG! at 5.5, per T-Rank, which measures what number of factors a person contributes to his workforce above what a replacement-level participant would produce.
There have been loads of nights when relying so closely on Fears labored simply tremendous. He poured in 29 factors and dished out 9 assists in a victory over Rutgers, scored 23 factors and distributed 10 assists in a win over Indiana and chipped in 21 factors and 11 assists in a surprisingly aggressive victory over Cornell. Fears leads the KenPom race to win Big Ten Player of the Year — just lately overtaking Smith in that class — for a cause.
However the method through which Friday’s sport unfolded saddled Fears as virtually the one offensive possibility at Izzo’s disposal. It was Fears who scored 12 of the workforce’s 26 factors within the opening half and Fears who was the one Spartan to make multiple discipline purpose throughout that stretch. Had small ahead Coen Carr not transformed a brief runner because the first-half buzzer expired, Fears would have been the lone Michigan State participant with greater than three factors on the break. Izzo and his workers will know that such a recipe may show problematic when attempting to mount a prolonged postseason run.
4. Michigan threw the early punch in a battle of elite defenses
EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN: Michigan State’s Jaxon Kohler containers out Michigan’s Morez Johnson Jr. on January 30, 2026. (Photograph by Rey Del Rio/Getty Photographs)
Throughout a lot of Michigan’s unbelievable 19-1 begin to the season, which matches the very best 20-game document in program historical past, equaling Ultimate 4-bound squads from the 2012-13 and 2018-19 campaigns, the Wolverines claimed the nation’s greatest protection. An unlimited entrance line that includes three gamers listed at 6-feet-9 or taller — together with Mara, a 7-foot-3 behemoth — brought on issues for seemingly each workforce Michigan confronted. And starting with a 67-63 street victory over TCU on Nov. 14, the Wolverines held 16 of their subsequent 18 opponents to 72 factors or fewer.
Slowly however certainly, although, and in trademark Izzo style, the Spartans started leaning increasingly more closely on their protection amid an equally spectacular stretch through which they gained 19 of their first 21 video games. Apart from an eyebrow-raising 114-97 victory over Cornell — a sport that proved to be a statistical outlier in additional methods than one — Izzo’s workforce solely surrendered greater than 70 factors in a sport twice, with a type of cases coming in an additional time victory at Rutgers. By the point Michigan State tipped off towards Michigan on Friday evening, the Spartans had leapfrogged their in-state rivals to assert the stingiest protection within the nation, according to KenPom.
However that’s not fairly the impression most observers would have shaped after absorbing a primary half that included practically 18 minutes with Michigan within the lead. As an alternative, it was the visiting Wolverines who imposed themselves defensively within the early going to construct a bonus that swelled as giant as 18 factors. Tipped passes, jumped passing lanes and relentless physicality pressured the Spartans to commit 11 turnovers within the opening half, a sloppy stretch that was additional compounded by icy taking pictures, hitting three discipline objectives in 16 makes an attempt to start the sport and solely seven within the first half general. Izzo stewed and stormed alongside the Spartans’ bench as he watched an opponent out-tough and out-execute his workforce early — a rarity throughout his Corridor-of-Fame tenure.
4 ½. What’s subsequent?
EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN: Michigan head coach Dusty Could throughout the sport towards the Michigan State Spartans on January 30, 2026. (Photograph by Rey Del Rio/Getty Photographs)
Each groups may have ample time to get well from the psychological and bodily problem that was Friday’s sport earlier than returning to the court docket subsequent week. The Spartans will journey to Minnesota (10-11 general, 3-7 Huge Ten) for a tough take a look at on Feb. 4, whereas the Wolverines return house to host struggling Penn State (9-12 general, 0-10 Huge Ten) on Feb. 5.
In some respects, each of these video games function demarcation traces for 2 packages that have been gifted extraordinarily favorable begins to convention play. Michigan, which entered the showdown with Michigan State having performed the 18th-toughest Huge Ten slate, according to KenPom, is getting ready to embark on a ending stretch prone to embody at the very least 4 extra ranked opponents — together with the mouthwatering non-conference tilt towards No. 4 Duke on a impartial ground subsequent month. And Michigan State, which has performed the league’s Seventeenth-toughest schedule, ought to face at the very least three extra ranked groups within the coming weeks, with two of these video games on the street.
Every little thing culminates within the rematch between these groups at Crisler Middle on March 8, the ultimate day of the common season. It’s a sport which may nicely have vital seeding implications for each the Huge Ten match and the NCAA match.
