EAST LANSING, Mich. — Draymond Green simply was not
going to lose to Michigan for a fourth straight time.
Green finished with as many rebounds as the entire Michigan team, leading the
Michigan State Spartans to a 64-54 victory Sunday afternoon at the Breslin Center.
“It was definitely personal for me,” said Green, who had 14 points and 16
rebounds in 38 minutes. “I told our guys this was a must-win game for us.
“We wanted to beat them really bad. The margin of victory wasn’t what we
wanted. I wanted to blow them out.”
The most startling statistic was the rebounding totals, where Michigan State
had a 40-16 advantage. The Spartans also held Wolverines point guard Trey Burke
to 11 points, nine fewer than he scored when the teams met in Ann Arbor on Jan.
17, while Tim Hardaway Jr. had only four points on 1-for-10 shooting.
The talk about whether Michigan has turned the rivalry upside down will quiet
down for a while now.
“The world is back in place,” said Green, who had averaged only 7.7 points
while shooting 33 percent in the three previous losses to the Wolverines.
On Tuesday, Green had limped off the floor late in the game at Illinois with
what appeared to be a potentially serious injury to his left knee. Some
wondered whether his college career might be over at the time, but it turned
out to be only a sprain.
Still, Green said he was seriously concerned about it when he first returned to
practice late in the week.
“You could see me favoring it, worrying about what was going to happen,” Green
said. “He (coach Tom Izzo) told me, ‘You’re subconsciously thinking about
what’s going to happen with your knee. If something’s going to happen, it’s
going to happen anyway. You’re not going to stop it by playing gingerly and
playing lightly on it.’
“That was a good piece of advice.”
On Sunday, based on how Green dominated the Wolverines, his knee appeared to be
bionic.
Michigan State had nearly as many offensive rebounds (12) as Michigan had
defensive rebounds (13).
“They have length and girth that we don’t have,” said Michigan coach John
Beilein, who didn’t get the wish he wanted on his 59th birthday.
As for personally getting as many rebounds as the Wolverines, Green said,
“That’s funny.”
While Izzo made a point of pumping up Green for Big Ten Most Valuable Player during
his postgame news conference, the coach also praised centers Adreian Payne and
Derrick Nix for their defensive efforts to help contain Burke.
Michigan likes to run ball-screens for Burke out top, but the Spartans were
right there to stop his penetration most of the time.
Guard Keith Appling did a much better job this time against Burke.
“Trey Burke got the best of Keith the first time,” Green said. “Keith said it
wasn’t going to happen again.”
It didn’t, thanks in part to Payne and Nix.
“My two big guys did an unbelievable job on how we wanted to cover those ball
screens,” Izzo said. “Payne and Nix really were a wall in there. There wasn’t a
lot of deep penetration. That was the difference.”
Hardaway, Michigan’s leading scorer at 15.1 points per game entering Sunday,
missed his first six shots before finally getting his first points on a jumper
with 15:26 remaining.
By containing Burke’s penetration, the Spartans also shut down Hardaway at the
same time, according to Izzo.
“I think that hurt him,” Izzo said of Hardaway. “I don’t think he got into the
rhythm he normally gets into.”
The 54 points are Michigan’s second-lowest total of the season behind only the
49 scored at Ohio State seven days earlier.
Michigan didn’t score for the first 5:09 of the first half (0-for-5 shooting,
three turnovers) and the first 4:04 of the second half (0 for 5, one turnover).
The ninth-ranked Spartans (18-5, 7-3 Big Ten) moved into second place in the
conference, a game behind first-place Ohio State. No. 23 Michigan (17-7, 7-4)
dropped into a third-place tie with Wisconsin.
But on this day at least, Izzo’s mind was more on that three-game losing streak
to the Wolverines than the conference standings.
“It was way more about the rivalry than the Big Ten,” he said. “Hopefully, we
switched the trend and it will go the other way again.”
