Senior forward Gabe Brown shoots the ball at the game against Michigan at the Crisler Center on March 1, 2022. The Spartans lost to the Wolverines 87-70.
After sophomore center Hunter Dickinson made a hook shot to put Michigan up 21 with 13 minutes left, he did not break eye contact with the Michigan State bench while returning to defense. He barked at MSU players and Head Coach Tom Izzo while holding his hand towards the ground, signaling that no one on Michigan State was big enough to handle him.
And Dickinson was right with that judgment.
He was the leading force in Michigan’s comfortable 87-70 victory. Dickinson scored a career-high 33 points on 13-19 shooting, pulled in nine rebounds and was the vocal leader in the Wolverines’ emotional must-win victory. It was a surgical performance from the Michigan center, who seemed to get wherever he wanted on the court and used his low post skills to make shot after shot.
The clinic started from the opening tip. 40 seconds in, Dickinson got his first touch of the game. He received the ball on the right block and flipped the ball over junior center Julius Marble II's outstretched hand for his first basket to tie the game at 2.
Dickinson sized up Marble after the make then stared down MSU’s bench as he returned to the defensive end, letting Michigan State know what they were in for tonight. But the Spartans could do nothing to stop Dickinson’s onslaught despite the warning.
“I felt like we didn't push him out as far and he just kept backing us in and he made a lot of shots,” Izzo said of the performance.
He also feasted because of the ability of Michigan’s guards to penetrate at will into the paint, forcing rotations from MSU’s big men to open up opportunities for easy baskets and offensive rebounds. Izzo said a poor night from Michigan State’s big men was a main cause for that.
“Our bigs didn't do a very good job, Marcus and Julius were just…,” Izzo said before cutting his sentence short. “I don't mean in the post, either. I'm talking about the ball screens, that was our big problem. They drove the ball and when they drove the ball they missed, and they get their own rebound or they kick out for those open threes.”
Whether it was Marble, senior forward Marcus Bingham Jr., sophomore center Mady Sissoko or even redshirt senior forward Joey Hauser guarding him, Michigan State had no sort of answer for the 7’1, 260-pound force that is Dickinson. On both ends of the floor, he pushed around Michigan State’s bigs to dominate the restricted area and provided a toughness for Michigan that the Spartans were severely lacking.
Every time Dickinson had the ball in his hands, he was hunting to punish Michigan State’s defense. Sometimes it was a face up 15-foot jumper, other times it was a drop-step to the rim, a baby hook over his right shoulder or a rim-rattling dunk. No matter what move he used from his deep arsenal, Dickinson was able to put the ball in the rim with little to no resistance.
And every time he scored, he had words or stare for whoever was guarding him or the Michigan State’s bench. He got in MSU players' faces, yelled at Izzo and the MSU bench and flexed over the bodies he crumpled on the way to another basket.
It was the attitude of a player who knows he is the best player in the gym and today, no one came close to rivaling Dickinson’s dominance.
“He did a good job of sealing down there and scoring the ball and the guards just happened to be open and hit shots,” senior forward Gabe Brown said.
After the first basket, Dickinson scored five more times to go into halftime with a game-high 12 points but it was only the start to his career night.
In the second half, Dickinson took over and scored 21 points on 11 shots to put the nail in Michigan State’s coffin. It started with consecutive baskets in the paint to put Michigan up 48-30 in the first minute. Six minutes later, Dickinson scored two more baskets, a layup and hook shot, to put Michigan up 21 before letting MSU they were too small to hang.
Dickinson was subbed out after that stretch and Michigan State quickly cut the lead to 12, prompting Interim Head Coach Phil Martelli to sub the star back in immediately. Dickinson then rattled off eight straight points for Michigan to push the lead to an insurmountable 17 points with six minutes left.
The final basket in the outburst served as the dagger to Michigan State’s hopes. After catching the ball in the short corner, Dickinson beat Marble on the baseline and took the ball all the way under the rim before rising up on the other side for a baseline reverse dunk on Marble’s head for an and-one. The crowd in the Crisler Center erupted as Dickinson reminded Marble who the alpha was tonight.
It was the last sign that Michigan State was not anywhere near matching the Wolverines’ intensity and toughness. It was a disappointing performance for a Spartan team that was coming off its most impressive win of the season over Purdue. MSU rode its superior toughness and intensity to the win over the Boilermakers but once again could not replicate a good performance in the following game.
“I want them to just play harder because they're not,” Izzo said. “I'm not going to get out of them what they need out of them, I just need them to play harder … I don't know how you come off a game like Saturday and then come down to your rival.”
The inconsistencies have plagued this Michigan State team all season and it came back to bite again in a monumental game against its rival. The normal edge that Michigan State brings into its rivalry matchups was absent while Dickinson dominated both physically and mentally.
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“We did not play well enough in any area to win the game,” Izzo said before leaving the podium. “They did. They deserve to win.”
