EAST LANSING, Mich. – Dusty May, Tom Izzo, and their teams have spent the past week pouring gasoline on an already heated Michigan-Michigan State basketball rivalry.
During the first meeting of the season on Friday, the Wolverines won at the Breslin Center for the first time in eight years, improving to 20-1 on the season with an 83-71 win over the rival Spartans.
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Michigan led by 18 in the first half and 16 at halftime, but Michigan State stormed back early in the second half and even took a brief 2-point lead. May’s team responded, though, and found a way to come out with a win.
It was a physical battle, with 44 fouls (23 on Michigan State, 21 on Michigan), 53 free-throw attempts (27 for Michigan State, 26 for Michigan), three flagrant fouls (two for Michigan State and one for Michigan), and a tech on Izzo.
Here are the notable rivalry moments from the past week:
- Izzo reiterating that he hates Michigan in an interview before the game.
- Claims that a Michigan manager spit on the Spartan logo earlier in the day before the game.
- May poses in front of jeering fans before the game.
- Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears appearing to trip Lendeborg on defense.
- Foul on Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg reviewed and overturned to a hook-and-hold on Cam Ward.
- Flagrant foul on Fears during a Lendeborg fast break attempt.
- Foul drawn by Michigan’s Will Tschetter on a shot attempt right before halftime.
- Flagrant foul on Michigan’s Trey McKenney for pulling down Jordan Scott during a shot attempt.
- May calling timeout with a 14-point lead and 31 seconds left on the clock.
- Quick postgame handshake.
- May accusing Fears of dangerous plays during his Monday press conference.
- Izzo firing back at May in his own Monday press conference.
Let’s break down all of it.
Tom Izzo talks about hatred, respect in rivalry
Izzo got the rivalry talk started during the week leading up to the game when he was asked about his feelings toward rivals.
“You guys are awesome, too, because every year you want me to tell you how much I hate them, so I will say it again: I hate them,” Izzo said. “Of course I hate them. They hate us, you know? You’ve got friends down there. You think I’m getting Valentine’s Day cards or birthday cards?
“It’s the way it is, guys. It’s no different in any way in America. The key word is respect, and I do respect them a lot.
“When I die, I don’t care if anybody likes me or not. I care if they respect me. So that’s the way I look at the rivalry. If the day comes when you like your rival, it’s time to get out. That’s for anybody in any sport. But if the day comes that you don’t respect your rival, shame on you.”
Pregame video of Michigan manager goes viral
On Friday afternoon before tipoff, videos circulated on Michigan State social media accounts accusing a Michigan basketball manager of spitting on the Spartan logo in an empty Breslin Center.
The video clearly shows a manager dribbling a ball to mid-court, slowing down on the logo, and looking down for a moment. Did he spit? It depends which side you ask.
The video was originally posted by “MSU basketball managers” and received hundreds of thousand of views.
Dusty May poses in front of student section
Another memorable moment before the game was when May took a peek onto the court well before tipoff and was greeted by early arriving students.
A picture surfaced of May sitting on the bench in front of a hundred or so members of the Izzone. His arm was draped over the back of the chair next to him and he was smiling at the camera, seemingly unbothered as the students in the background jeered at him.
The picture was hilarious before the game. Now that Michigan won, it’s being viewed as iconic within that fan base.
May explained what happened during his postgame press conference.
“I was actually just taking a peek,” May said. “I thought -- when we pulled in, the students were still lined up down the block, and even when we rode in the Kalamazoo Entrance, there’s a long line and I assumed it was students. I was, like, ‘OK, they’re not in yet, but man this is a big-time, there’s a lot of anticipation for this game.’
“So I walked by and I was greeted as soon as I stuck my head out on the court, and at that point, I was, like, ‘There’s no way I’m ducking and running from this smoke now.’ This stuff doesn’t bother me. So I just let them get all their frustration and their animosity out early, and that way they could enjoy the game. So I felt like I contributed to the environment just a little bit.”
Did Jeremy Fears try to trip Yaxel Lendeborg?
The play that’s been talked about most since the game involves the biggest stars fro both sides: Lendeborg and Fears.
There was 14:39 left in the first half when Fears beat Elliott Cadeau off the dribble while driving right from the top of the key. At the time, Lendeborg was guarding Jaxon Kohler, who was in the right corner.
Lendeborg came over to help and cut off Fears near the block. Fears kicked out to Kohler, who buried a three from the corner.
But later, zoomed-in videos on social media showed that when Lendeborg turned to try to close out on Kohler after Fears’ pass, Lendeborg’s right foot got tangled up with Fears’ right foot.
May was asked about those videos and the people who believe Fears tried to Lendeborg on purpose.
“There was a play where Fears appeared to trip Yaxel. Is that beyond --” the reporter started.
“Appeared?” May interjected. “I mean, it wasn’t an illusion, right?”
“That seems like beyond basketball, I guess,” the reporter continued. “Beyond a basketball play. Is that something the Big Ten should look at?”
“I think there were several plays that are very dangerous, and I am incredibly proud of our guys for the responses they had to some of those situations,” May said. “Incredibly proud for their self-control, their constraint, and their impulse control. I’ll leave it at that. But they’re not isolated incidents.”
The next reporter said, “Now I kind of want to go more in on that.”
“The film’s there,” May said. “Forty minutes of it. It’s not hard to find.”
“Have you reached out to their staff or?” the reporter asked.
“It’s not hard to find,” May said. “I have not reached out to their staff, no.”
Izzo was asked about these comments by May during his own Monday presser.
“I’m not going to get into that,” Izzo said. “I have no idea, but I do know that I thought there were a couple plays the other way, too, like jumping into a guy and getting a foul when it was a complete joke.
“This is what it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be -- and you know what? Michigan’s over. I’m moving onto Minnesota. No insult to you. I don’t care what Dusty says. I don’t care what they say. I don’t care.
“There’s some things Jeremy did I addressed on. But him and their point guard were going at it pretty good. That’s what happens in games like this, so if anybody did anything dirty, tell him to call me and I would be more than happy to address it. If it was physical play, that’s the way that game’s always going to be.”
Yaxel Lendeborg foul changed to Cam Ward hook-and-hold
The first flagrant foul came with 2:29 remaining in the first half.
It wasn’t a flagrant at first. Lendeborg was originally whistled for a loose-ball foul while going up for an offensive rebound against Ward. But after a long review, the officials called a hook-and-hold on Ward, saying he had trapped Lendeborg’s arm.
Replay showed Lendeborg’s right arm pinned between Ward’s left arm and side.
Lendeborg made both free throws and then hit a layup on the ensuing in-bounds pass from L.J. Cason.
Michigan’s lead grew from eight points to 12 in just a matter of moments, instead of Ward going down to the other end to shoot free throws and potentially trim the deficit to six.
Flagrant foul on Jeremy Fears
Michigan’s lead was up to 17 with 51 seconds left in the first half when Kohler missed a triple from the top of the key.
The rebound came all the way out to Cason at the free-throw line, and he threw the ball ahead to Lendeborg, who had leaked down the court after contesting Kohler’s shot.
Lendeborg caught the pass off a bounce and was going up for a layup when Fears caught up and fouled him to prevent the basket.
An intentional foul was called immediately by the officials, who determined that Fears hadn’t made a play on the ball.
Replay showed Fears swiping down with his right arm and giving Lendeborg a shove with his left arm while Lendeborg was in the air. Lendeborg didn’t fall to the ground.
He made one of two free throws.
Foul drawn by Will Tschetter
The play Izzo referenced when he talked about a Michigan player “jumping into a guy and getting a foul” happened on Michigan’s final possession of the first half.
Tschetter got the ball at the top of the arc with 8 seconds left and pump faked. Jordan Scott flew by to Tschetter’s right, and Tschetter leaned into Scott while taking the shot.
The foul was called, and Tschetter got two free throws (he had stepped on the three-point line). He made both to give Michigan an 18-point lead -- once again tied for it’s largest of the game.
“On the one play that I’m talking about where a guy jumped into us, I think that was a 100% wrong call, but they can’t change the call,” Izzo said Monday. “So I don’t know -- sometimes you can change the calls that these things are, sometimes you can’t. I don’t know what they are.”
Flagrant foul on Trey McKenney
With 11:33 left in the second half and Michigan leading 50-45, McKenney launched an airball three in front of Scott, who was closing out.
On his way down, McKenney reached out and grabbed Scott’s arm before falling back onto the floor, nearly taking Scott down with him.
It was reviewed and called flagrant foul. Scott made both free throws and then missed a three that would have tied the game at 50.
May calls late timeout with big lead
Another controversial moment during the game was when May called a timeout with 31.5 seconds remaining and Michigan leading by 14 points.
May offered his side of the story in the postgame presser.
“(I told them) that we need to keep our composure,” May said. “That we’re going to play again, and not to get caught up in any riffraff.”
Lendeborg had just shot four consecutive free throws before that timeout due to a foul on Fears and a technical foul on Izzo.
Izzo clearly didn’t appreciate that timeout.
“Sorry, but you guys have got to have something that’s controversial, so, let’s see, what could I make controversial?” Izzo said Monday. “I’m surprised nobody brought up the timeout.”
Izzo looked at the reporter, who had just asked about the quick postgame handshake (more on that in a moment).
“I think (May) gave an explanation to that,” the reporter said. “He was trying to avoid riff-- avoid his players doing anything.”
“Well, that’s a good explanation,” Izzo said, shrugging.
On the live broadcast, Izzo was arguing with an official after Michigan called the timeout, but that might have been because of the play that led to his technical foul, not necessarily because of May’s timeout.
Quick postgame handshake
As the final seconds ran off the clock, Izzo and May met at mid-court to start the handshake line.
It looked like May was expecting some sort of exchange, and Izzo was all business. He shook May’s hand and continued walking down the line, even causing May to turn back a little bit before letting go.
Izzo was asked Monday whether there was anything to that “noticeably short handshake.”
“Some guys I talk to -- I have no interest in talking to my rival -- some guys I don’t,” Izzo said. “It was not a (swat). It was a handshake, you know? Walk by. It was a handshake, you know? It was probably no different than the one last year if you really got right down to it.
“Geez, they’re 20-1 or whatever they are and we’re 19-3, whatever we are. There should be a lot bigger things to get into (than be) worried about the got-darn handshake.”
This is where Izzo went into the comments about May’s timeout, which were discussed above.
Later in Monday’s presser, Izzo went back to this topic unprompted.
“Remember this: Whether I hug and kiss Dusty or he hugs and kiss me, OK? We got beat by a better team,” Izzo said. “They played better. They were better. They have been better. We got beat by a better team. We knew we had to play our best game. We didn’t do that. We showed at times we can play with anybody. We didn’t do that on a consistent basis, and the better team won. Simple. Not for flowers for them. Not for anything to save me. I said it after the game, I say it now.”
Izzo says Michigan played well, ‘I guess’
In his postgame presser, Izzo gave credit to Michigan for playing well enough to win, but his phrasing made it a bigger story within the Michigan fanbase.
“Well, to say I’m disappointed would be an understatement,” Izzo said when he walked up to the podium. “I did not like the way we played. I’ll give Michigan credit. They played well, I guess.”
Izzo then went into the assessment of what went wrong for his team.
Dusty May on ‘mercenaries’
May went out of his way to defend his team against people who claim the Wolverines are simply a group of “mercenaries” purchased from the transfer portal.
“I know people outside of our tribe will call our guys these derogatory names -- mercenaries or whatnot,” May said Monday. “We have a group of guys that love playing with each other. They appreciate Michigan and when you see how connected they are, I don’t know how you would, I guess, classify them as guys playing just for money when they all sacrifice a great deal of money to do what they’re doing together.”
Later, he was asked about those comments.
“The ‘mercenary’ thing really seems to have gotten your attention,” a reporter said. “Do you take that a little bit personally?”
“Yes, of course,” May said. “Especially Year 2. I mean, how many -- look, I get it. I think everyone would rather us just come in and sign a bunch of freshmen and lose and try to grow it organically. But our job from Day 1 was to win, so we brought in a balanced class.
“Even the transfer portal thing, like, I mean, I went in the portal. I went to a small Division 2 school and played ball and ran cross country and realized that wasn’t going to get me to where I wanted to be, which was a high school coach in Indiana. I thought, ‘If I go be a student manager for Coach (Bob) Knight, I could probably get a job in my mid-20s as a coach at a small school varsity job.’ So it’s whatever prepares you best for what’s next.
“I watched a couple of our guys that left after last year’s team play this weekend, and I love watching those guys. We still talk to them. They root for us. We root for them. We’re still in each other’s lives. We’re part of each other’s journeys. Our situation wasn’t what they wanted at that time and we’re OK with it. We’re not mad at them. This is it. This is a change.
“If we’re not fluid and flexible -- we coaches don’t have the control that we had seven years ago. We don’t really have any control, and I’m OK with that. In our program, we want to prepare these guys for what’s next, and we want them to stay as long as they’re committed to doing it together and representing Michigan. But if they choose something different, we’re not mad at them. We’re not making this about us.”