The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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58 THE WOLVERINE ❱ JUNE/JULY 2025 B ack in 1969, Bo Schem- bechler received a rude welcoming to the Michi- gan State rivalry when his first Michigan team lost to the Spar- tans, 23-12. The then first-year football coach atoned with a huge win over Ohio State — a shocker over the nation's No. 1 team and the Wolverines' biggest rival that endeared him to the fan base and started a fantastic, 21-year career. Wherever he went, the late coach recounted in one of his books years later, fans thanked him for the " biggest upset in school history." But that was also followed by a quick reminder. "We don't like to lose to Michi- gan State." After that, former quarterback John Wangler (1978-80) once told us, Schembechler made that a "red-letter game." He went 17-3 in the next 20 confrontations and dominated the series. OSU was (and al- ways will be) No. 1, but he knew he owed it to the fan base and his in-state play- ers, especially, to take care of business. Fast forward to 2025 and now add the cesspool that is social media to the mix. It used to be the Michigan natives who had to live with their MSU neighbors, family members, etc. Heck, after the 2001 robbery in East Lansing, a 26-24 game in which time expired but the clock operator allowed one more sec- ond for a game-winning touchdown, our priest hung a Michigan State pen- nant from the pulpit (we've since moved to the church a town over). There's no escaping it, and the rheto- ric — real or fabricated — is only getting worse, which means you really (really) want to be on the right side of it. Dusty May knew it when he arrived at Michigan from Florida Atlantic, having experienced plenty of rivalries over the years. Indiana-Purdue was a heated one when he was a manager for IU coach Bobby Knight, and he insisted the Spar- tans were on his radar the second he arrived in Ann Arbor. "It's as intense as I anticipated," the second-year Michigan coach insisted when we asked if he got a taste of it af- ter the game in East Lansing in which a shoving match ensued while MSU se- niors were kissing the court. "We knew what this meant. … We knew how im- portant it was." Which is why it "absolutely mat- tered" to add players to the roster who had seen it up close. No better than Or- chard Lake (Mich.) St. Mary's and Flint native Trey McKenney. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo laid the foundation for his program with hard-nosed kids from "The Thumb," and it's propelled him to great success. Michigan head coach John Beilein (2007-2019) closed the gap and then some with the Spartans, at times taking control in a back-and-forth rivalry. It wasn't always the in-state players who made the difference, but the ones who did had a lot of the same characteristics. "I just think when you come out of Flint, there's a toughness that you have," McKenney said recently. "There's just a toughness and a skill of working hard when you come from Flint, because you have to work for what you get." That and the in-state aspect "absolutely does matter," May insisted. "Wearing Michigan is impor- tant to him," he said of McKen- ney. "There's a bit more pride in life after basketball and repre- senting his state, so it does mat- ter." And with that comes beating the Spartans, no easy task given how personal that rivalry has been to Izzo. But it's personal to May, too, even if he didn't grow up in it. And like Beilein, underneath the composed and stoic persona you see publicly is a competitive fire. You can see it in their eyes when they talk about the rivalry. "Obviously, we have to be a better basketball team, make some adjustments," May said. "We have to make sure we're ready to play … or maybe less ready. I think we were a little too amped up for the rivalry game, es- pecially at home. "When I was at UAB, we had No. 1 Memphis coming in, and everyone was almost too excited to play. We focused on everything but the game. In hind- sight, make it more about how difficult the actual 40 minutes are and not the emotion and everything else." They'll get a war even if they do. Credit Izzo for making Michigan State U-M basketball's version of Ohio State. It just matters more. Year 1 for May was mainly about turn- ing the program around, and he cleared that obstacle with room to spare. Next up — managing the Sparty hurdle and reaching Final Fours. Those are his own expectations, and he seems to be making all the right moves to achieve those goals. ❏ Michigan State, under the direction of Tom Izzo (right), has become Michigan basketball's chief rival. MSU won the regular season while U-M won the Big Ten Tournament. Dusty May (left) endured a pair of losses to the Spartans this year, but U-M signed the state's No. 1 player in Flint native Trey McKenney. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL Chris Balas has been with The Wolverine since 1997. Contact him at cbalas@ thewolverine.com and follow him on X (Twitter) @Balas _ Wolverine. INSIDE MICHIGAN ❱ CHRIS BALAS Beating The Spartans Is A Priority