The Spartans grabbed the No. 1 ranking in the AP and USA Today Coaches polls for the first time in nearly 13 years Monday, giving the MSU faithful high hopes as team football team wraps up an impressive season.

Head coach Tom Izzo said after Monday’s 82-67 win over Portland that while the top spot in the polls for the third time in program history is nice, it essentially doesn’t mean a single thing.

“There’s no rings, there’s no banners … there’s no bonuses,” Izzo said with a smile. “As I was going through it today, I said ‘only three? That is really embarrassing,’ and then you think ‘Wait, no it’s not, it’s really hard to get there.’”

For senior guard Keith Appling, however, the No. 1 ranking was even further in the back of his mind throughout the day.

“I didn’t even know we were ranked No. 1,” Appling said. “I had to ask the equipment manager if the rankings even came up.”

Even if Appling didn’t know the Spartans’ ranking as a team during the day, he certainly played like he knew he was the floor general of the top-ranked team at night.

Led by the senior guard’s career-tying 25 points, MSU went on a tear late in the second half to win the team’s second Coaches vs. Cancer Classic game this season. Izzo said after the game that he hasn’t seen a point guard performance that awe-inspiring in quite some time.

“It was one of the great point guard performances in many, many, many, many years,” Izzo said. “You look at the decisions he made, he should have had 10 or 12 assists … and he just did an unbelievable job defensively.”

Senior forward Adreian Payne and sophomore guard Gary Harris also played key roles in the offense, scoring 19 and 15 points, respectively. Branden Dawson, who started the game on the bench, led the game in rebounds with 10.

The game, however, wasn’t as smooth sailing for most of the way.

Just days after MSU nearly had fans in heart attack mode against Columbia, the Spartans kicked off against Portland on the same foot.

By only hitting 7 out of 18 three-pointers, the Spartans were settling for shots early on and going away from the post, causing the heavily-favored home team to walk into halftime with only a 36-32 lead.

The Spartans came out of halftime looking as if they were going to pull away, taking an eight-point lead less than two minutes in. However, later in the half, the Spartans went back to the ways of the first half, settling for outside shots as Portland tied the game at 46 with 12:42 left in the game.

After missing his first four 3-point shots of the game, junior guard Travis Trice nailed one from the baseline and had a fast break layup to give the Spartans a five-point lead less than a minute after the Pilots tied the game. Both Harris and Appling said that was the moment where they felt like their team was pulling away.

“(Trice) really was a spark with the three and the steal,” Harris said.

Appling knocked down his fifth three of the game, and Harris hit two of his own back-to-back to give MSU a 60-50 lead.

Sophomore forward Matt Costello, who missed the start after a less-than-impressive performance Friday, created noise in Breslin Center after he threw down a dunk with Portland closing in on him. Costello ended his night with four points and five rebounds in ten minutes of play and afterwards said he was pleased with his play.

“(Not starting) changed how I played today,” Costello said. “I do feel like I’m playing myself in or out of the starting rotation right now, but today was a step in a good direction.”

With less than seven minutes remaining, Trice buried his second three of the game and put the Spartans up 69-54. That all but put the game away, as Portland never got within 13 the remainder of the contest.

The Spartans next will travel to New York to play Virginia Tech in the Coaches vs. Classic on Friday at 9:30 p.m.