Is Michigan-MSU Still A Big Basketball Game? Two Alumni Think So

When Gregory Kelser played basketball for Michigan State University, it was a time when MSU and the University of Michigan were regular competitors for the Big Ten title. It was the late-1970s, and these were the Spartans of Magic Johnson, Kelser, and Jud Heathcote -- going up against the Wolverines of Rickey Green, Phil Hubbard, and Bill Frieder. And other supporting players.

Almost 30 years later, Kelser -- now educating us about basketball in grand fashion as one of the game's best TV analysts -- can still recall every U-M/MSU meeting that occurred while he attended school.

"Each year we had a very, very frustrating loss to the Wolverines," Kelser says in this month's issue of Motor City Sports Magazine. "But the last time we played them at (MSU's) Jenison Fieldhouse, we blew them out by like 30 points. We were on our way to a national championship, so that win mitigated all the psychological damage those losses did to me personally."

Tonight, the Wolves and the Spartans get it on for the first time this season in East Lansing, and even though neither is in contention for first place in the conference, and the Spartans have dominated the series in recent years, it's still, in one Michigan alum's eyes, the school's biggest rivalry.

"It was the best rivalry we had," says former Michigan center Tim McCormick, who also turned into a fine TV analyst. "The crowd was very intense and passionate, and the players all knew each other very well from summer ball and high school, and it was very competitive."

Kelser also points out that the schools are now, for better or worse, more evenly matched now than in recent years. The bad news for Michigan fans is, the reason for that isn't so much that the Wolverines have improved all that much, but that the Spartans have dropped back to the pack. A pack of also-rans that once again includes Tommy Amaker's group.

When was the last time, for example, you saw a Tom Izzo team score 38 points, as they did in a loss last week? The Spartans were hurt drastically by graduation, and it's all guard Drew Neitzel can do to keep his team in ballgames by himself. It smacks of the dreaded "rebuilding" word, but the folks in Ann Arbor have been "rebuilding" for nearly a decade. Since Izzo took over the Spartan program in 1995, MSU has played in 31 NCAA tourney games, including a national championship in 2000. In the same time frame, Michigan has played in four tournament games.

"Not being the favorite is not something I want to get accustomed to," Izzo said before the season. "I hope this happens only every eight or nine years, but that's where we are right now."

As for Amaker, the vultures are out. His ouster is being called for, in his sixth season. The doomsayers don't seem to care that a new coach would mean some more of that lovely rebuilding.

"Michigan-Michigan State is always a special game," Amaker told MCS by e-mail recently. "We have a lot of respect for them and the rivalry itself."

They should. They hardly ever beat MSU anymore.