Ann Arbor — Derrick Walton Jr. says it’s like “any other game.”
But Michigan-Michigan State basketball is about much, much more.
“Of course it’s about bragging rights,” Walton, a Detroit-native, said Friday in advance of Sunday’s Michigan-Michigan State game at Breslin Center in East Lansing.
Michigan is 14-7, 4-4 Big Ten and Michigan State is 12-9, 4-4. This is the first of two games between the teams in a nine-game span. The teams will play Feb. 7 at Crisler Center.
The road has not been overly kind to the Wolverines this season. They have lost five games on the road, but they have won three of their last four overall, including a 30-point win over Indiana Thursday, perhaps not coincidentally all at home.