The Big Ten Conference men’s basketball tournament is underway in Indianapolis. Both Michigan State and Michigan are set to play their first games Friday.
Michigan Public sports commentator John U. Bacon joined Morning Edition host Doug Tribou to talk about the conference tourney, college hockey, and more.
Doug Tribou: Before we dig into the tournament, let’s look back to the end of the regular season in East Lansing last weekend. The Spartan men were hosting Michigan. It was also MSU’s Senior Day when — per tradition — MSU seniors kiss the Spartan logo on the court as they are subbed out of the game. Some Spartans and Wolverines got into a brief scrum during that. Some Wolverines [were] standing on the Spartan logo. What do you make of the latest flare up in UM-MSU relations?
John U. Bacon: Wow. Can we make it stop? That's my main reaction [Laughs].
DT: [Laughs]
JUB: In this case, it's not quite clear. Michigan State's been doing this for a long time. It's a great tradition, I love it. But Michigan's whole coaching staff is brand new to the state, basically. And then the two [Michigan] freshmen on the logo — it's a big logo — and [MSU's] Frankie Fidler kissed it first without incident.
But then Tre Holloman took exception to Michigan players standing on it. The freshmen. He shoved them. The fight starts. Both coaches broke it up very quickly, to their credit, of course. But as a friend of mine — inside the Michigan State program — said, we have no idea what happened and we're moving on.
I'm with him.
DT: Let’s turn to the Big Ten Conference basketball tournaments. One of the changes — for both the men and the women — is that not all the teams are in. This year, after the expansion of the conference to 18 teams, the tournament includes just 15 teams — meaning the bottom three from the regular season are out. There are high stakes here because the winners of the conference tournaments get an automatic NCAA tournament spot, regardless of their regular season performance. How do you like that change?
JUB: How about not as bad as all the others? Is that an answer? When you've got 18 teams, you don't have a league, you have a nation, basically, with a playoff system. So you have to do something. And this strikes me as about as good a solution as any. And no doubt whoever comes out of this tournament will be considered one of the best teams in the country, so it will all work.
"Michigan State is about the only team in the Big Ten that I'd want to bet on in this tournament or the NCAA tournament."John U. Bacon on MSU men's basketball
DT: Four teams earned automatic spots in the Big Ten tourney quarterfinals: Michigan State, Maryland, Michigan and UCLA. After Thursday’s games, we know that Michigan State will face Oregon Friday. Michigan will play the late game Friday night against Purdue. How do you like the Spartans and Wolverines chances to advance? Let’s start with the Spartans…
JUB: Honestly, Doug, Michigan State is about the only team in the Big Ten that I'd want to bet on in this tournament or the NCAA tournament. They're playing tough. They're playing good defense. They play team basketball. This is not Izzo's most talented team, not by a long shot, but I think perhaps his best coaching job of his long and storied career. This is 11 Big Ten titles for Tom Izzo.
DT: And how about coach Dusty May and the Wolverines?
JUB: Well, look. A great season. They were 3-14 in the Big Ten last year — basically bottom dwellers. They're now 14-6. They had a shot until the last week to win the Big Ten title, but they finished with three bad losses. They're not on a roll right now. Their weaknesses have been exposed. So they will have to turn it around again to make a serious run in the NCAAs.
DT: The men’s semifinal games are Saturday afternoon. The conference title game is Sunday afternoon. The women’s Big Ten tourney wrapped up last weekend, Michigan got knocked out in the semifinal round. UCLA won the title. Selection Sunday for both the NCAA’s women’s and men’s brackets is this weekend.
Before I let you go, let's turn to college hockey. Michigan State has clinched the Big Ten regular season title in college hockey. Fun fact: that marks the first time a Big Ten team has won both the men's basketball and hockey conference titles in the same season.
But Michigan hockey's tough weekend last weekend put the Wolverines at risk of not making the Frozen Four tournament. What has given MSU the edge the past couple of seasons?
JUB: Very simple. Coach [Adam] Nightingale. He has done a phenomenal job. It was a sleeping giant of a program for 15, 20 years. He has less talent than Michigan does, but they play defense. They play hard every night. They seem to have a great team unity. And I don't think Michigan has any of those things. They rolled over and died last weekend in a must-win weekend against Penn State, and they are now at the mercy of other forces. So the job that Coach Nightingale has done at Michigan State contrasts with the job done at Michigan. They're simply better coached.
Editor's notes: Some quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity. You can hear the full interview near the top of this page.
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