College basketball rankings: Dusty May leads Michigan into rivalry game vs. Michigan State for first time

Dusty May was named the CBS Sports National Coach of the Year two seasons ago after guiding Florida Atlantic to the 2023 Final Four. Now, in just his first season at Michigan, the 48 year-old Indiana graduate is in position to maybe add another COY award with his Wolverines sitting at 20-5 overall, and 12-2 in the Big Ten, heading into Friday night’s game against Michigan State.

Tip is scheduled for 8 ET.

The Wolverines are listed as 2.5-point favorites. If they win, they’ll have a two-game lead in the loss column of the Big Ten standings with just five regular-season games remaining, at which point an outright conference championship would become a likely scenario for Michigan after being picked ninth in the league’s unofficial preseason poll.

Earlier in the week, May was asked for his impressions of the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry as someone who was raised in the Big Ten’s traditional geographic footprint. Here’s what he said: “Every game I watched, it was obvious, the amount of intensity and passion for the game, and it was typically two really good basketball teams going tooth-and-nail, competing and, usually, both of them were in championship contention.”

That sounds about right. And it’s also true heading into this meeting between in-state rivals given that the winner will wake-up Saturday alone atop the Big Ten standings.

Michigan State is No. 11 in Friday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Michigan is No. 13. I’ll further discuss the matchup with Matt Norlander in Friday’s episode of the Eye On College Basketball Podcast.