It wasn't even clear until Friday evening that Michigan State Spartans star, Draymond Green, was going to take part in Sunday's game against in-state rival Michigan after a knee injury he suffered earlier that week in a loss to Illinois. In that match up, Green needed to be helped off the court by coaches and trainers and it was determined that the senior forward has sprained his knee and his status remained uncertain heading forward into the schedule.
In Green's three previous match ups against the Wolverines, his numbers hadn't reflected all that particularly well. After their third loss-in-a-row to Michigan in Ann Arbor earlier in the season, Green made a promise that when they returned to East Lansing to face their in-state rivals, he would not graduate as a senior without a victory and a top-notch effort to boot to cap off his regular season career versus U of M.
"You can't say something and not back up your words," Green said. "I'd be less of a man to guarantee something, promise something and not come out here and do what I can to back up my word."
And back up his words he did. The talented forward, whom many thought might be forced to play it safe in an effort to not further aggravate his injured knee, exploded into the game and demonstrated his determination to go out with a victory over Michigan. Green not only scored 14 points for his MSU, but matched his entire rival team's rebound efforts with 16 of his own during the victory. As for the knee?
"It wasn't hurting," Green told reporters after the game. "I felt great."
Michigan State (18-5, 7-3 Big Ten) now moves into sole possession of the second place spot of the Big Ten Conference behind the white-hot Buckeyes of Ohio State. Spartans' head coach Tom Izzo knows that seeing his team move up in the conference standings is important, but for those special times of the year when his team hosts the maize and blue, or when they travel to the town of Ann Arbor, it game takes on a much higher aspect for his players.
"It was more about the rivalry than it was the Big Ten," Izzo said.
Green, a Saginaw native, knew this was going to be his final shot at redemption against a Wolverines team that had beaten his Spartans three times in a row and its that type of passion that coach Izzo knows helps to win big games.
"I don't care where you're from, it never means as much as it does for the players in state and that's one of the reasons I believe in recruiting in-state guys," Izzo said. "Draymond didn't want to go out losing four in a row."
With the Spartans once again having tasted victory over their in-state rivals for the first time in nearly two years, Draymond Green felt peace slowly ebb back into his mind.
"The world is back into place," he said.
One of the most-surprising aspects of the game was the effective shutdown of the Wolverines' top talents in Tim Hardaway Jr. and teammate Trey Burke. Burke managed to go just 4 of 11 scoring 11 points in the loss and Hardaway Jr. had a season-low four total points going just 1-for-10 shooting. Izzo and his Spartans were well-prepared for the one-two punch of Hardaway and Burke and the coach told reporters in essence that if you "kill the head, the body will die".
"What we did was shut down Burke's penetration and that's how Hardaway gets his shots," Izzo said.
U of M head coach John Beilein meanwhile, knew that Michigan State's Draymond Green was bringing everything to the table during the game. Green became just the fourth Big Ten Conference player since the 1996-97 season to at least equal the opposing team's rebound total by himself according to STATS, LLC.
"He's got a great spirit and he had a great game," coach Beilein said. "He's always been a tough matchup for us, but he played his best today."
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