Friday night's Battle for the Great Lakes State between the Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans had more than rivalry bragging rights on the line. The No. 1 spot in the Big Ten standings was also up for grabs.
Behind Jase Richardson's 21 points and six rebounds, Michigan State got a statement victory over their rivals. That's two-straight wins over ranked teams, which is the best way Tom Izzo could have hoped to bounce back after a rough patch.
Momentum was on the Wolverines side coming into the game thanks to a six-game winning streak that launched them to the top of the Big Ten. By the end of Friday night, they'd lost that spot.
Updated Big Ten standings after Michigan State downs Michigan
- Michigan State Spartans (13-3)
- Michigan Wolverines (12-3)
- Wisconsin Badgers (11-4)
- Purdue Boilermakers (11-4)
- Maryland Terrapins (11-5)
- UCLA Bruins (10-6)
- Illinois Fighting Illini (9-8)
- Oregon Ducks (8-8)
- Nebraska Cornhuskers (7-9)
- Ohio State Buckeyes (7-9)
- Indiana Hoosiers (6-9)
- USC Trojans (6-9)
- Minnesota Golden Gophers (6-9)
- Rutgers Scarlet Knights (6-10)
- Iowa Hawkeyes (5-10)
- Northwestern Wildcats (5-11)
- Washington Huskies (4-11)
- Penn State Nittany Lions (4-12)
Michigan State won't have an easy time holding the No. 1 spot. On Wednesday they take on No. 20 Maryland then face No. 11 Wisconsin next Sunday. Those are two of three ranked matchups in their final four games.
Michigan has five games left in their conference slate, so there's plenty of time to wrestle the top spot back from Michigan State. In fact, the rivals finish the regular season with a showdown at the Breslin Center.
Wisconsin has a chance to pull themselves back into the regular-sason title race next week. First, they'll host Oregon on Saturday and Washington on Tuesday.
As for Purdue, their season has gone off the rails with three straight losses to Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan State. They'll look to rebound against Indiana on Sunday.