ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was set up to be a momentous night of celebration for Michigan. In a rarity, two hours before a February tip, the university announced first-year coach Dusty May had agreed to a new deal less than a year after signing his original contract, effectively taking him off the table for the soon-to-be vacant Indiana job.
A sellout crowd eagerly filled Crisler Arena for one of the most anticipated Wolverines’ home games in recent memory. A top-15 affair between No. 12 Michigan and the visiting, hated Spartans of Michigan State, ranked 14th and coming to take over first place in the best high-major conference race in college basketball.
They came, they conquered.
With the score 71-62 in favor of MSU and 1:35 remaining, the cheers came quickly and aggressively, ringing out in hostile territory.
GO GREEN!
GO WHITE!
GO GREEN!
GO WHITE!
Many in maize made their way to the concourse, quickly and aggressively.
And then it was over.
No. 14 Michigan State 75, No. 12 Michigan 62.
“There’s nothing better than beating your rival on their home floor,” Spartans coach Tom Izzo said. He is now 6-2 all time in top-15 matchups against his bitter rival. The game was much closer than the final margin indicates, but that’s on account of MSU holding Michigan scoreless in the final 4:12.
And so, the Spartans have taken the lead in the Big Ten ledger (13-3), moving a half-game ahead of the Wolverines (12-3).
It was a signature type of win for an Izzo team. After taking a haymaker in the form of a 15-0 Michigan run in the first half, falling behind 33-25, Izzo let his players settle in the visiting locker room before going to the board and writing a word that summed up his feelings and his viewpoint on his team’s effort and execution through the first 20 minutes.
SUCKS
“We sucked so bad the first half,” Izzo told CBS Sports.
The outcome flipped the deeper into the game they got, and the player most responsible happens to be the breakout guy in all of college basketball since the calendar hit February. Freshman Jase Richardson started his fifth consecutive game, those being his only starts this season.
He’s probably never going back.
“Guy acts like a senior half the time,” Izzo said.
Richardson scored a game-high 21 points along with six rebounds. He was the only Spartan to log more than 25 minutes. His 29-point performance in a come-from-behind home win over Oregon on Feb. 8 remains the high-water mark of his verdant college career, but Friday provided a close No. 2.
“It’s been special,” Richardson told CBS Sports of his emergence over the past five games. “I think this group of guys is really special. We had a little rough patch at the beginning of January, but I felt like we just picked it up as a team and we’re getting big wins that we really need. So it’s been really special these last three, four weeks, especially getting its start to try to adjust to my new role.”
And beyond that, it went a long way toward a major development for the Spartans: They have a go-to guy. For as good of a season as Michigan State has had, it was lacking an alpha scorer, someone who could command the ball and make good decisions and draw fouls in big moments late in games. Izzo told me earlier this week this is as balanced of a team as he’s ever had. But it needed someone to become the leading man.
Win No. 22 for this team became the moment Richardson took ownership of this team with the way he played on the floor.
“It is what I want because I think the players know,” Izzo said. “I told him at the end of the game, I want the ball in his hands.”
Richardson is, of course, the son of Jason Richardson, one of the most electrifying players in program history.
“He had a good game here,” Izzo said of the elder Richardson’s performance in 2001. “I’m not sure he had as good a game as [Jace] had, but he had a couple monster dunks here. … His dad should be proud of him. I mean, the kid played his ass off.”
He was born into this rivalry. Hating Michigan is in his blood.
“It’s a pure hatred between the teams,” Richardson said. “Growing up watching those games, it kind of just instilled in me, you don’t like those guys. You’re not supposed to like those guys. So this rivalry, just playing in it now, now that I’m actually playing it, it’s really special.”
He’s a special player. Fifteen NBA teams had general managers, associate GMs or scouts at Crisler Arena on Friday night. They were there to see Michigan’s Danny Wolf and Richardson above all others. Wolf had some dazzling plays in defeat, finishing with 11 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.
It was Richardson who was The Decider down the stretch.
“He’s just a great kid,” Izzo said. “He studies film, he picks things up. I said he wouldn’t be allowed in Vegas — he’s got to have a photographic memory, he just picks stuff up so well and he doesn’t forget. Amazing, amazing kid, and it’s confident, not cocky. It’s hard to do.”
Izzo told me earlier this week this team has renewed his belief in what a team can be in the modern age. This group is as connected, jovial and together as any he’s had in the past 10 years, if not more. He never stopped loving being a coach, but he’s finding more joy in the day-to-day. Guys like Richardson are why.
Fun freshman, great teammate, maybe the player who can unlock Michigan State to another Final Four run. Deep down, you know Izzo craves at least one more trip. Nothing is guaranteed. It’s so hard to do. But the longer this season goes, the more possible it seems for a team that has vintage MSU toughness and a fresh-faced freshman with NBA pedigree, an NBA future and, now, the trust of his coach and teammates.
This is Jase Richardson’s team now. Let’s see how the freshman handles the next big step of his promising young career.
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