Two Key Categories Led to Spartans Rivalry Win

The No. 14 Michigan State Spartans (22-5, 13-3) came up big on Friday night as they went on the road and defeated hated rival, No. 12 Michigan Wolverines (20-6, 12-3) at Crisler Center. Two key categories that heavily influenced the rivalry win were the Spartan's defense and rebounding ability.

In a 75-62 whooping of their in-state rival, the Spartans outworked a talented Wolverine team while keeping them to their lowest point total of the season with stellar defensive play. Michigan shot 46% from the field, which is just shy of their season average, and a brutal 5-21 from three-point range.

Spartans head coach Tom Izzo spoke postgame about his team's continued defensive success and the role it played in the rivalry win. He also gave credit to Wolverines first-year head coach Dusty May, who has turned their program back into a national contender in just one season.

"Our defense has been really good all year; we're No. 1 in the league for a reason, and that's what we started saying, and those guys are starting to see it now," Izzo said. "I think [with] 3:58 left, there was a timeout, and they talked about cranking up the defense, not giving up shots, we couldn't give up threes, couldn't foul guys. We did a hell of a job because that's a damn good team. Very well coached, he's [May] done a heck of a job there in his first year."

As Izzo mentioned, the Spartans are one of, if not the very best defensive team in the Big Ten. They rank second in opponent points per game (67.2), first in opponent field goal percentage (40.4%), and first in rebounds allowed (30.2). They have been this good defensively all season long.

Spartans junior center Carson Cooper was at the forefront of the defensive success on Friday and spoke about how important the depth is for this team. Cooper is alongside three other post players that totaled 15 or more minutes in the game. They continued to throw different looks at Michigan.

"I think with having four guys that can play, it makes it tough, just throwing another guy at him and throwing another guy at him," Cooper said. "Obviously as bigs, we got to be better staying out of foul trouble because it's tough to manage that. Especially in the first half, when I've got two and Szymon [Zapala] got two and all that, but I think we really did a good job of just continuing to keep fresh guys out there and keep them on their toes, too."

Izzo also gave his thoughts on his team's incredible rebounding against a team that featured two 7-foot stars in Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin. That did not matter, as the Spartans were +9 in the rebound margin while converting a whopping 14 offensive rebounds to 13 second-chance points.

"We out-rebounded them by nine, I thought another big key for us in the first half was we got a lot of offensive rebounds," Izzo said. "I thought we had eight or nine in the first half and that was big."

Cooper pulled down a team-high eight rebounds, while sophomore forward Coen Carr earned three of his four boards on the offensive glass. True freshman guard Jase Richardson found six rebounds of his own to help the cause. Michigan State was simply more physical than the Wolverines.

Teams that play great defense and rebound the basketball on both ends tend to have a lot of success in March. Even if the Spartans did not shoot as well as they did, going 45.9% from the field and hitting nine 3-pointers, they still would have found a way to compete with those two other strengths.

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