Why Saturday was Breakthrough for MSU Basketball
In this story:
Saturday night would have felt like a must-win for Michigan State no matter what team it played. The schedule gave the 10th-ranked Spartans nothing but more trouble: No. 5 Illinois.
Sports can be confusing sometimes. Going from being pretty easily outplayed by Minnesota, a team on a seven-game losing streak, to taking down the Fighting Illini, who entered Saturday on a 12-game winning streak, defies practical logic.
No. 10 MSU’s 85-82 overtime win on Saturday night feels like a breakthrough for this team in multiple ways. Not only does this get the Spartans out of their two-game rut that they were in, but it also gives Michigan State an A-tier win to add to its resume.
It goes a bit deeper than that, too.
The Meaning of a Top-5 Win
These types of wins don’t come around often. This was the Spartans’ first victory over an AP top-5 opponent in some time. The last one came against then-No. 4 Kentucky on Nov. 15, 2022. That UK team finished the season unranked, too — that won’t be the case for this Illinois squad.
Since that game, Michigan State had lost 10 straight against top-5 teams. This 2025-26 team had lost twice to No. 4 Duke and No. 3 Michigan earlier this season, both of those games being at home. Both of those games were competitive games, too, but the Spartans were the second-best team on the court during “winning time.” That seemed to change during this game.
Michigan State was up by one against Duke with five minutes left. It trailed by one against Michigan at that same spot. MSU was behind by two with five minutes to go in regulation against Illinois on Saturday, and then was down four at the final media timeout of regulation shortly after that.
During the Spartans’ third game against a top-5 team in East Lansing, the third time was the charm. This was the point where the Blue Devils and the Wolverines pulled away from Michigan State and staked their claims as the nation’s top teams. MSU had proven it can play with the country’s elite teams, but it hadn’t proven that it can beat a true national title contender.
Something Tom Izzo talks about a lot is that his team’s margin for error is slimmer than a lot of his older teams. Michigan State has to play a certain way in order to win. Things didn’t line up previously against top teams, but they did on Saturday.
Defend, rebound, and run are still the three pillars for Izzo’s program. Well, Illinois’ No. 1-ranked offense, per KenPom, was at least semi-limited most of the night. MSU out-rebounded the Fighting Illini by 10. And then, fastbreak points ended up being 22-0. Those three pillars held.
“That’s a better team than we are right now,” Izzo said after the game. “Especially going into this game, they [Illinois] had won 12 in a row, and we were limping. That’s a better team right now, and yet, I thought we played better. And that’s why you play the games on this night.”
This can remove a bit of a mental block for MSU moving forward. Yet another tight loss to a great team would have solidified a ceiling a little bit for this team. There would have been a pretty clearly drawn line between Michigan State and the top teams on its schedule.
Suddenly, the image of the Spartans besting a team that is capable of winning the whole thing is in everyone’s mind.
That’s the beauty of college basketball’s system: you only have to get hot at the right time to make a ton of noise in March. It’s about being truly capable of taking down one of those elite teams that’ll be sporting a one or a two seed in the tourney.
Think back to the 2019 tournament run. If that Michigan State team and that Zion Williamson-led Duke team played 10 times in the Elite Eight, the Blue Devils would probably end up winning seven or eight games. MSU was able to make its own luck that day, though, and bested the nation’s most talented team that day.
If this year’s Spartan squad and Illinois faced off that many times on a neutral court 10 times, the results may not be too much different. But Saturday’s result now is tangible proof that Michigan State can beat anybody in the country on the right night. That’s important to the team’s psyche and confidence moving forward.
Keep up with all our content when you follow the official Spartan Nation page on Facebook, Spartan Nation, WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE, and be sure to share your thoughts on MSU's win over Illinois when you join our community group, Go Green Go White, WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE. Don't forget to give us a follow on X @MSUSpartansOnSI as well.
Never again miss one major story related to your beloved Spartans when you sign up for our 100% FREE newsletter that comes straight to your email with the latest news. SIGN UP HERE NOW
A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
Follow jacobcotsonika