(Bump. -- Ed.)

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I had considered posting this shortly after the 4th win in a row over UM, when many of the UM fans were stating that it still wasn't a rivalry with MSU. Their true "rival" was OSU, which had in fact dominated them for the better part of the last 10 years. But this week's loss to UM and the increased discussion of "The Rivalry" made me dust off the data, apply a few more filters, and come to the conclusion that there is a true rivalry with MSU/UM.

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One could use many other headlines in that situation, but why? When the BTN cameras caught Izzo near tears towards the end of the game, there's none more appropriate. Especially appropriate was Draymond Green's performance -- 22 points, 14, rebounds, 6 assists, and 1 dawning realization on my part about how much I'm going to miss him when he's gone.

Another thing I'm beginning to realize during the Big Ten season is that Branden Dawson is adapting to Big Ten play. He had 16 points on 7-10 shooting, 4 rebounds, and 4 blocks. If he doesn't break out this season, he will in the next. To conclude this mini recap, the one stat I think is important -- While the Spartans shot 2-11 from three (18.2%), they shot 24-37 from two (64.9%), and that effectiveness from inside made all the difference.

So in this thread, let's celebrate Izzo's 400 victories. I'll start -- the 2009 team defeating a seemingly invincible Louisville team in the Elite Eight with help from three Goran Suton threes in the first half. GO.

I don't know if you've heard, but Izzo could get his 400th career win in this game. I'm a bit wary how the media has covered this almost as a certainty, as Minnesota has been much better than most have thought they would be after losing Trevor Mbakwe for the season, going 3-4 in the Big Ten so far. Some credit goes to Rodney Williams discovering accuracy (62.1% from two, 35.0% from three), some goes to freshman wing Joe Coleman coming into his own the last three games, averaging 15.7 points per, and some goes to Ralph Sampson for starting to realize that he, a 6-11 post player, probably shouldn't roam around the perimeter.

This is the game thread. The drill is this: No slurs, no links to illegal game streams, and be cool to one another. Enjoy the game everyone.

GO GREEN, GO WHITE, BEAT MINNESOTA.

With a 25-point blowout of a pretty good opponent between us and the loss in Ann Arbor, we can go back to what we were doing before: marveling at just how good this basketball team has been, preseason expectations to the contrary. Despite the back-to-back losses to Northwestern and Michigan, MSU remains right on the edge of the top 10 nationally according to the human pollsters and has actually risen to #4 in the country by KenPom's calculations. (We'll have to take a temporary hiatus from giving Mr. Pomeroy such a hard time about overrating Wisconsin.)

An interesting aspect of MSU's unexpected emergence as a national contender is that there really hasn't been a breakout star in the mix. Draymond Green has been very good, but his numbers are basically right where they were last year. (MSU's team success does have him flying high in KenPom's Player of the Year rankings, though.) Keith Appling's development has probably been the biggest individual factor in the team's success, but 12.6 points and 4.0 assists per game don't exactly knock your socks off--and are well short of what Kalin Lucas posted last season.

Beyond those two players, no Spartan is averaging more than 10 points or 4 rebounds per game. That means a larger number of players are contributing smaller amounts of production.

The details after the jump

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I’m not going to get much into the craziness going on with some of the rivalries in this game and crowd chants but I will say that, despite my friendly joking about Rick Mount, I respect Robbie Hummel and this was one of the few times I actually felt bad for an opposing player – not in an insulting, pitying sort of way, no – but watching Hummel exit East Lansing for the last time in a Purdue @ MSU game in what was for him and his team an absolute debacle was bittersweet. Good luck, Robbie, and see you in West Lafayette.

But let’s talk about the sweetness! For the second time this year, Michigan State really took apart a conference opponent at the Breslin. The final was 83-58 (statsheet boxscore here) and I would not have guessed this morning that the margin would exceed the previous two games. I’m going to cheat a little bit and rely on my own preview to do some analysis.

Point 1:
Robbie Hummel vs. Draymond Green
Green was awesome and pulled one basketball’s great tricks: to be effective and make plays for your team when only taking a limited amount of shots (credit Keith Appling with the same). On top of his 8 pts, he had 12 rebounds and 7 assists, leading the team in both. Hummel had a horrible night and his 0-11 performance from the field was only supplemented by 2 successful free throws. This one-on-one contest was a landslide.

Point 2:
Control the game by dominating in the post.
Derrick Nix did his best jumbo Green impression and reminded everyone who had forgotten what a valuable asset he is moving the ball out of the post. Statesheet only counts two assists but they were both excellent plays that required Nix to think fast and make the right pass accurately. He was also alert when receiving passes and took advantage of his junior year quickness to get the ball up without hesitation. After struggling with the offensive motion of both Northwestern and Purdue, Adreian Payne came back around for a better showing and didn't let defensive lapses keep him out of the game. The combined numbers for Aderrian Nipaynx were 21 pts (8 of 12), 7 rebs, 2 asts, and 1 block in 35 minutes. Not bad for the two-headed center beast. Purdue played small much of the game but the time spent for the Purdue post players Jacob Lawson, Travis Carroll, and Sandi Marcius was not memorable. Purdue never consistently addressed their shooting woes by going inside and those three players combined for only 3 shot attempts in 41 minutes. Again, landslide.

Point 3:
Get Dawson going.
I anticipated that the history between Izzo and Painter over recruiting Dawson might be an issue tonight and I guess I nailed that one. After a quiet first half, Dawson’s explosive performance helped turn a big win into a laugher. His 14 were a basket behind Branden's season high. I’m excited about the possibility of Trice and Dawson developing chemistry for more of those easy alley-oops. On top of the offensive glassman and dunker we know him to be, fans also caught hints of where Dawson can go. He hit his free throws, popped a beautiful jumpshot, and anticipated a pass for a breakaway steal. If all that becomes routine, Dawson turns into a monster. The trip to play at Purdue should be very interesting.

Less systematic analysis after the jump...

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