COLUMN: Tom Izzo, Michigan State men’s basketball poised to reestablish dominance over Wolverines
Michigan State's men's basketball program appears to be on the verge of reintroducing itself as a national powerhouse this upcoming November.
While the 2022-23 season is still roughly six months away, the Spartans are already readily recognized as a preseason Top 5 or 10 team, depending on which publication you ask.
Tom Izzo is bringing in arguably the best recruiting class he's ever signed to East Lansing this summer, and the four highly-touted true freshman who make up that class will join a roster already brimming with experience and talent of its own.
Last week, I wrote that Michigan State's football program was in danger of falling further behind in-state rival Michigan on the gridiron. The opposite is true on the basketball court, where Izzo's program appears to be lapping Juwan Howard's on the recruiting trail, and poised to reestablish dominance on the hardwood.
From 1998 to 2010, the Spartans had a stretch in which they went 18-3 against Michigan in basketball, including a perfect 11-0 at the Breslin Center. Could that level of dominance be on the horizon again for Michigan State?
It certainly appears that the Spartans will be heavily favored over the Wolverines in both meetings this coming season. While Michigan State is waiting for guards A.J. Hoggard and Jaden Akins to make their final decisions concerning the 2023 NBA Draft, both players are expected to return to East Lansing. Should that happen, the Spartans will maintain their status as one of a handful of preseason favorites to win the national championship next season.
Meanwhile, Michigan is losing its three leading scorers off a team that failed to reach the NCAA Tournament earlier this year. Wolverine center Hunter Dickinson, who's been Michigan's best player for arguably the past three seasons, has transferred to Kansas. Michigan wings Kobe Bufkin and Jett Howard each entered their names into the NBA Draft and, unlike Hoggard and Akins, have already confirmed that they will not be withdrawing their names.
Adding salt to the wound of losing those three players, Michigan also recently saw its prized transfer portal addition, former North Carolina guard Caleb Love, decommit from the program. Apparently, not enough of Love's completed credits from UNC would transfer to U-M, eliminating the Wolverines as a viable candidate for Love.
As things stand right now, Michigan State men's basketball has a definite edge over Michigan in talent, depth and experience for the 2022-23 season. The Spartans are also kicking the Wolverines' tails in recruiting.
After signing the nation's No. 3 recruiting class for the 2023 cycle, Michigan State's 2024 class is ranked No. 11 in the country, despite holding just two verbal commitments. MSU landed a Top 50 recruit in four-star shooting guard Kur Teng back on April 3rd, and followed that up with a commitment from borderline four-star center Jesse McCulloch on April 20th.
Meanwhile, Michigan signed just one player — four-star shooting guard George Washington III — in its 2023 "class", which ranks No. 65 in the country. Granted, the Wolverines are off to a decent start to the 2024 cycle, with commitments from four-star guards Durral Brooks and Christian Anderson, but we'll see if Michigan can maintain that momentum during an upcoming season that, on the surface, looks like a potential disaster.
Former U-M head coach John Beilein resurrected the Wolverines' program, and helped turn the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry into one of the best in all of college basketball. From January 2011 to March 2019, the Spartans held just a slight edge, a 10-9 record, over the Wolverines.
The back-and-forth nature of the rivalry has continued in the four years since Beilein left Michigan. Howard and Izzo have each gone 4-4 against one another since 2020, which each program going 4-0 on its home floor.
However, Michigan State appears to be on its way to re-joining the best of the best in college basketball, while Michigan is sputtering entering Year 5 of the Howard era. If the current trajectories are anything to go by, it looks like the Spartans will own sole possession of the men's basketball portion of this in-state rivalry in due time.
