Michigan State basketball: Spartans clinch outright title, number one seed in Big Ten Tournament
By Zac Snyder
With a win at Wisconsin in the regular season finale, the Michigan State basketball team clinched an outright Big Ten title and the number one seed.
After getting out to an 8-0 lead earlier in their game at Wisconsin, the Michigan State Spartans led the entire first half and took a seven-point lead into the locker room. But even in a down year, beating the Badgers on their home court proved to be not quite that easy.
What was a 34-27 halftime lead for the Spartans was a 47-45 deficit after an Ian Happ layup with 9:55 left to play.
Then the Michigan State leaders led the way. Cassius Winston, Miles Bridges and Jaren Jackson Jr. stepped up to make sure the win didn’t slip away even though the lead may have. Bridges scored eight of his ten points in the final ten minutes of the game. Winston also hit a couple key three pointers and finished a perfect six-for-six from long range to finish with a team-high 20 points on the day. Jackson also chipped in with his one three pointer coming at a key moment and hit his free throws down the stretch to help secure the 68-63 win.
And what a win it turns out to be.
Michigan State wrapped up at least a share of the Big Ten regular season title earlier this week when they beat Illinois but today’s win ensured the Spartans have that title all to themselves. A loss to Wisconsin would have meant sharing the title with Ohio State but the implications go beyond the shared banner that would hang in Columbus.
A head-to-head win over Michigan State would have given the Buckeyes the number one seed in the Big Ten tournament. Now, the Spartans will be the top seed when the Big Ten Conference takes over Madison Square Garden beginning on Wednesday.
With a double-bye, the Spartans will begin conference tournament play on Friday against the winner of Thursday’s game between the eighth-seeded Maryland Terrapins and the ninth-seeded Wisconsin Badgers.
Elsewhere in the state, the Michigan Wolverines are still waiting for their conference tournament seed to be locked in. Their regular season ended Saturday afternoon with a win at Maryland but their final seed will be determined by what happens this evening when Nebraska hosts Penn State.
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The Wolverines will be big Penn State fans as a Nittany Lions win will see Michigan move into the four seed and receive a double-bye to the conference quarterfinals. A Nebraska win means Michigan will be the five seed and will be faced with one extra game in their path to defending their conference tournament championship from last season.