EAST LANSING – Three days after Michigan won the first of two in-state rivalry matchups this season, Dusty May was still upset.
The second-year coach of the Wolverines on Monday called the play of Michigan State point guard Jeremy Fears “dangerous” in Friday’s 83-71 win for the Wolverines in East Lansing. One sequence appeared to show Fears attempting to trip Yaxel Lendeborg while he was attempt to close out defensively on a 3-point attempt.
“There were some things Jeremy did, I addressed on it,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said on Monday when asked about May’s comments. “Him and their point guard (Elliot Cadeau) were going at it pretty good, that’s what happens in games like this. If anybody did anything dirty, tell him to call me and I would be more than happy to address it. If it was physical play, that’s the way that game’s always going to be.”
Michigan (20-1, 10-1 Big Ten), which rose to No. 2 in the latest AP Top 25 rankings, built a double-digit lead in the first half on Friday and then held off a rally by the No. 10 Spartans (19-3, 9-2) to snap a four-game skid in the rivalry. Fears, who had a career-high 31 points to go with seven assists, five rebounds and four steals, finished with four fouls, including a flagrant for hacking Lendeborg from behind on a late breakaway.
“I am incredibly proud of our guys for the responses they had to some of those situations,” May said. “Incredibly proud for their self-control, their restraint, and their impulse control. I’ll leave it at that.”
After being asked about May’s comments regarding Fears, Izzo said he felt there were questionable calls or non-calls both ways.
“I’m not going to get into that,” Izzo said. “I have no idea but I thought there were a couple plays the other way too, like jumping into a guy and getting a foul when it was a complete joke.”
Izzo said he’s moving on to Wednesday’s game at Minnesota but was also asked about a brief postgame handshake with May on Friday.
“Some guys I talk to – I have no interest in talking to my rival – some guys I don’t. It was a handshake,” Izzo said, adding he thought it was probably similar to last season. “Geez, they’re 20-1 or whatever they are and we’re 19-3, whatever we are – there should be a lot bigger things to get into than who’s worried about the God darn handshake so, sorry, but you guys got to have something that’s controversial.”
Michigan’s win on Friday night was its first victory at the Breslin Center since 2018. The teams will meet again in the regular-season finale on March 8 in Ann Arbor.
“Remember this, whether I hug and kiss Dusty or he hugs and kisses me, we got beat by a better team,” Izzo said. “They played better, they were better, they have been better, we got beat by a better team. We knew we had to play our best game, we didn’t do that.”
