Two wins over Michigan State is as good as it gets for Michigan basketball. Celebrating a championship season afterwards is the icing on the cake and insult to injury when it comes at the expense of their most bitter basketball rival. Here are three takeaways from Michigan's banner-raising win over the sour Spartans.
This win caps the greatest regular season in Michigan basketball history
Beating Michigan State twice, winning the Player's Era tournament convincingly, 19 Big Ten wins and the list goes on and on. Dusty May used his NIL resources too perfection. Brad Underwood and Matt Painter gave credit to how great this Michigan team is and can be. While Tom Izzo, Mick Cronin and Eric Musselman were left pouting after their four combined double-digit losses to the Big Ten champions.
I've been watching Michigan basketball for more then half of my life now and this team might not be as popular as the Fab five was, but they are winning like those guys were supposed to do.
Three Wolverines should be favorites for postseason awards
Dusty May, Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara are all in the running for their respective awards. May is a shoe-in for coach of the year over Fred Hoiberg and Greg Gard. Yaxel's performance against Michigan State should have won him Big Ten player of the year by a landslide, but Keaton Wagler and Jeremy Fears could steal the spotlight. Andy Katz says that Mara can win the defensive player of the year because he's recorded a block in every game and was top five in that category.
All IZZO does is whine. Most overrated coach of all time pic.twitter.com/8g42gUJ74O
— Marty Mush (@martymush) March 9, 2026
Tom Izzo is the biggest crybaby in coaching
In the postgame press conference, Izzo whined about being nobody's little brother. He backed his point guard, who just can't stop kicking people in the groin, and leads a program that has a reputation for this kind of behavior. Izzo cannot accept the fact that he just got swept by Michigan because he is a sore loser. Nothing would please a Michigan fan more than beating him a third time next weekend in Chicago.
To top it all off, Dusty May and Michigan basketball made him eat his words from Tuesday night in the Breslin Center. CBS aired it right at the beginning of their broadcast, and it backfired on him.
How ironic.