At the tail end of Michigan's 79-62 loss to Michigan State on Sunday afternoon in East Lansing, a skirmish — something that has become increasingly familiar in the in-state rivalry between the Wolverines and Spartans — commenced.

As MSU looked to begin its 30-year Senior Day tradition, which entails seniors kissing the Spartan logo on their way off the home court for the last time, Michigan freshman Phat Phat Brooks and L.J. Cason were standings too closely to the logo for Spartan point guard Tre Holloman's liking.

It appeared after Frankie Fidler kissed the logo with Brooks and Cason standing just feet away, Holloman, along with senior guard Jaden Akins — who would kiss the logo just moments later — asked Brooks and Cason to step further away from the logo to let the senior Spartans have their special moment.

Brooks and Cason, though, did not budge. Then, Holloman instigated.

He approached the Michigan freshmen and shoved each of them in the chest. The Wolverines, then, shoved Holloman back.

This sparked yet another scuffle, skirmish, brawl, or whatever word you want to use to described what has become a rivalry littered with such instances.

After Sunday's game, Michigan head coach Dusty May sarcastically asked: "Are we [Michigan] not allowed to stand at half-court while they're shooting a free throw?"

Meanwhile, right around the same time May was giving his postgame press conference, Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo was celebrating the Spartans' Big Ten championship. He then allowed Holloman, a junior, to kiss the MSU logo for standing up for tradition.

On Monday, ahead of the Big Ten Tournament, May offered more thoughts on the end-of-game incident. May claims he did not know about MSU's tradition, and he remained adamant that Brooks and Cason did nothing wrong.

May gave his full perspective on the incident:

"Do I know the customs and traditions of any other Big Ten school? No, I don't and won't know until I experience it. I don't watch Michigan State documentaries. I don't have a Sparty foam finger growing up, so I have no idea what they do. I know this, that the officials walked over and said that they have a tradition on senior night where their players kiss the logo as they're coming out of the floor. It's going to take some time. Great, that's awesome. ... Phat [Brooks] and LJ [Cason], are standing at the exact spot they were when Fidler kissed the floor, not doing anything other than just standing there, and then out of the blue, they're still standing at half court, and the Michigan State player comes up and two-hand shoves them in the chest."

"Now, the Spartan logo is about a third of the court. The game is going on. I didn't know that this happened during the game, and so if we needed to back them up to the other end or put all of our guys on an offensive, I don't know what we were supposed to do in that situation. I know that we had two freshmen standing at half court, and they're respectful, great dudes, and obviously, like I said, this was not the first person that came out, kissed the floor. We'd already agreed to the officials and whatnot, and so, yeah, that's my perspective on it."

"I'm very proud that our guys didn't retaliate in a different manner that could cost them playing in the Big Ten Tournament. To have that self-restraint and self-discipline and realizing that they're representing Michigan the way they do, so I was very proud of that moment because that could have gotten really, really ugly. Next year, I would say the guys move back five feet. ... As far as knowing the positioning we're supposed to stand and things like that during Michigan State Senior Day, I wasn't aware. ... But once again, I don't think it was a big deal either. I mean, like I said, I was just proud of our guys to show the restraint that they did and not make it an issue that could cost them playing the Big Ten Tournament."

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