Tonight’s Michigan State win over Michigan may have been one of the more impressive in recent memory.
Not only did Tom Izzo capture his ninth Big Ten regular season title, but he did it without two of his best players on the floor. Nick Ward and Joshua Langford were still sidelined due to injuries and the Spartans looked completely flat out of the gate and looked to have zero answers for Ignas Brazdeikis or Michigan as a collective whole.
Michigan State however seemed to play their comeback slow and steady chipping away at Michigan’s lead to enter the half with a manageable 35-29 disadvantage.
In the second half, Cassius Winston completely took over the game and gave fans on both sides flashbacks from two weeks ago of Spartan domination.
Winston came out in the second half sinking five straight baskets to lead the Spartan comeback en route to a 75-63 win over Michigan, sweeping the regular season series with their biggest rivals and earning a share of the Conference title with Purdue.
What’s next for Michigan?
Michigan will enter next week’s B1G Tournament as a three seed but are a shoe-in for the NCAA Tournament. A long run in the Conference tournament will obviously help their case for a better seeding once the Big Dance rolls around and and addition Charles Matthews to rotation would certainly help the Wolverines’ chances in making that happen.
What’s next for Michigan State?
That Spartans will enter the Big Ten Tournament as a one-seed next week and begin play on Friday. At this point it’s still unclear if Nick Ward will play at all in the Conference Tourney but it’s assumed he’ll contribute once the NCAA Tournament rolls around.
