Tom Izzo: "Winning the battle for the state means the world to me"

Michigan State is home to one of the most historically prominent and successful men's basketball programs in the country.

The Spartans have won two national championships, reached the Final Four 10 times, have won or shared 16 regular season Big Ten championships and lead the league with six Big Ten Tournament titles.

The goals for this program are high, year in and year out, both on a national and regional scale.

In the midst of the large-scale goals of competing for Big Ten championships, reaching the Final Four and winning national championships, there's another goal that will never be overlooked in East Lansing — beating Michigan.

“Winning the battle of the state means the world to me," MSU head coach Tom Izzo told the media on Thursday. "I grew up in this state, I’ve recruited a ton of kids from this state and I still live in this state. So, it will always mean something as long as I’m here.”

Izzo admitted that rivalries change over time, for various reasons. In modern-day college athletics, programs have more access to be able to recruit nationally, leading to fewer in-state kids playing in these in-state rivalries.

While watching the Illinois-Northwestern game on Wednesday night, Izzo noted that the Fighting Illini have only one player on their roster from Chicago — an unheard-of occurrence not too long ago.

Michigan State has four scholarship players who are native to Michigan — Jaden Akins, Pierre Brooks, Carson Cooper and Jason Whitens. Of the four freshmen on the Spartans' roster, only Cooper comes from within the state — Tre Holloman is from Minnesota, Jaxon Kohler is from Utah.

Holloman and Kohler are regulars in the Izzo's in-game rotation, but the head coach gave his youngsters homework in preparation for Saturday's matchup with the Wolverines.

“I told our freshman today, if you don’t understand the rivalry, read up on it and learn it by tomorrow," Izzo said. "If you don’t by then, I’m not playing you on Saturday. So, you better be ready for what the rivalry means to 90 percent of us. The kids who haven’t grown up in this state, they’ve got to learn it and they better learn it fast.”

The men's basketball side of the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry has generally been respectful between the two programs, despite its clear intensity. That respect between the two programs was only increased during the John Beilein era of U-M basketball, as Beilein and Izzo appeared to have a closer and more cordial relationship than other head coach combinations of the past.

However, the recent history of the football side of the rivalry hangs over the head of this basketball matchup, after the now infamous "tunnel incident" at Michigan Stadium on Oct. 29.

There's no doubt that how the football game ended will fuel some of the emotion inside the Breslin Center on Saturday, but Izzo urged Spartan fans to understand the line between cheering on MSU while maintaining respect for the opponent.

"I hope we're the craziest, toughest, best crowd that ever was assembled in the Breslin. With class, respect and handling ourselves the way we should. That’s the way I’m going to play this game, that’s how I’m going to handle this game," Izzo said.

“Do I think it's gonna be ugly? It better not be. And I’ll say that to every Michigan State fan – it better not be. Because on this side of the state, it better be done with, ‘Cheer for us, respect for us, respect for your opponent and let’s play the game.' Is there going to be any love? Hell no. I’ve said that for 20 years… Will there be respect? From this side, there will be. And that’s the way I want our fans to handle it, but I want them to spend a lot more time cheering for Michigan State then worrying about anybody on the other side.”

Tipoff between Michigan State (10-4 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) and Michigan (9-5, 3-0) is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Breslin Center. The television broadcast will be carried by FOX.

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