Spartans, Wolverines to meet just once in East Lansing this season

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Alex Muller
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John Beilein and Tom Izzo
Photo Credit: MGoBlog/Flickr

The respective men’s basketball schedules for both Michigan and Michigan State in 2017-18 are gradually starting to take shape. On Monday, both teams revealed their slate of conference opponents for the upcoming season and everything looks fine and dandy…

…except for one small thing. See how long it takes you to notice it.

Find it yet? No? Well it’s the fact that you only see one meeting between Michigan and Michigan State this season.

Now it’s not totally out of the ordinary to see this happen. In fact, the two in-state rivals played each other just once two seasons ago. It was an early-February showdown in Ann Arbor that was won by the No. 10 ranked Spartans, 89-73. The two split their meetings this past season, with each defending their home floor.

It’s a head-to-head series that dates all the way back to 1909, one that swings slightly in favor of Michigan, 91-81 (Michigan has also had to forfeit seven games).

Looking at the conference opponents for both teams, there are some other small things to point out.

Michigan is hosting five of the remaining top-7 teams that posted winning conference records a season ago (Wolverines were above .500 as well); including defending champion Purdue. In addition to Michigan State, the other notable omission from that home slate is Wisconsin.

As for Michigan State, something that sticks out is seeing only game this season against the other aforementioned teams who collected 10+ league wins a year ago. In fact, the only home-and-away tilt with any such team is the Badgers. They host Purdue which is a plus, but have potential misstep games against young and improving teams like Iowa, Minnesota and Northwestern.

Dates and times for all the games listed above will be announced at a later date and time, fittingly. Look for those to be made public some time in August.