Twice in the last several years Michigan State’s Tom Izzo emphatically pounded the podium after losses to Michigan with, ‘people wanted a rivalry — let’s make it a rivalry!’
John Beilein has more than done his part to make is so, having won the last three. He started off 0-4 while building his program and has gone 9-7 since.
Perhaps none were bigger than his first victory, a January 2011 win at the Breslin Center. Guard Stu Douglass’ triple down the stretch ended an MSU run in a 61-57 victory that might have changed the course of Beilein’s program.
“Forget about it being Michigan State. It was pretty big because of where we were,” Beilein recalled. “We were 1-6 and had just lost to Minnesota at home, going to the Breslin center. They were just coming off a Final Four, or it might have been the year before. We were picked 11th in the league and were about to be 1-7.
All of a sudden, he noted, the team started rolling through the 2014 season, when injuries and pro defections derailed them a bit. They’ve picked it up again since, however, and haven’t looked back.
Douglass’ triple from Morris was the shot heard ‘round the state.
“That was really a big shot,” Beilein said. “If we come out of there 1-7, it could have been a whole different thing. The kids kept believing. Zack Novak, Stu Douglass, Darius Morris, Jordan Morgan … they were all terrific in that game, and that gave us hope for the future.
"It changed a lot of things, I think.”
The two teams are ranked in the top 10 this year, and Beilein questioned anyone to find a better in-state rivalry than this one or Duke – North Carolina. The Spartans are down two starters in Nick Ward and Josh Langford, but Beilein is smart enough to know they’ll get the Spartans’ best.
He brought his own depleted team to East Lansing several years ago and took MSU to overtime before falling, so he knows anything is possible.
“It’s going to be a great game. Michigan State is so good,” he said. “The names change and they’ve been hit by the injury bug a little bit, but I don’t see any difference right now. They’re playing terrific. They really have a great team, a great system in place. We have two renowned programs in this state.
“They do a great job of grooming the next guy. Ward is a really good player and has given us fits over time. They just plug in Xavier Tillman. He’s good. Neither of their big guys are three point shooters, but they are tremendous power players. Tillman and Kenny Goins both have more offensive rebounds than Nick Ward. I think they are playing really well without him.”
The key on defense will be to slow the Spartans’ transition offense, he continued.
“That’s probably everything in this game,” he said. “We’d like to have two or three days to prepare and a day to rest so that you can get the effort, but they’re as good as anybody in the country [in transition]. That’s really important.
“Cassius Winston is elite in it, their bigs are elite at running the floor, and Matt McQuaid is running the lane, and he’s deadly right now. Cassius can drop off, pull up, go all the way to the rim. It’s really a challenge.”
It should be a challenge for the Spartans, though, to score in the half court. Tempo will be huge, as will the game itself with both teams on top of the standings with Purdue.
For several years, Michigan didn’t appear to take the rivalry quite as seriously. That’s changed dramatically over the last decade, starting with the big win in 2011.
“This is something our kids are all ingrained with, not necessarily by me but by all the media,” Beilein said. “This game is omni-important to so many people, means a lot for so many people , the bragging rights … we could play four times this year. We don’t know.
“This is an important game. They are standing in the way of the Big Ten Conference championship, and so are several other teams. This is just another one of those teams. They’re really good, but I know it means an awful lot to our fans.”
And to Michigan's team and its title hopes, as well.
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