No. 8 Michigan State had its way with UCLA in East Lansing last month, but that wasn’t the case on Friday night, as the Bruins got the better of the Spartans in the quarterfinal round of the Big Ten Tournament.
What happened to Tom Izzo’s squad?
“I was really disappointed in how we played,” Izzo said about Michigan State, which was the No. 3 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, in his postgame press conference on Friday night after the Spartans’ 88-84 loss to the Bruins. “I give a lot of credit to UCLA, though. We beat them by 23 [points] at our place, and [UCLA head coach] Mick [Cronin], like he should do, got his team ready, and they played harder, tougher, and that doesn’t happen to my team very often, but for some reason, we did not answer the bell coming out. We missed some shots, but they probably missed a play or two, so they definitely kicked us from start to finish and deserved to win the game.
“We almost made a valiant comeback, but that would’ve been too little, too late with the way we played, and I think they made us play that way. They came at us. They punched us in the mouth, and we didn’t respond. It doesn’t happen very often. We’ll figure out why, and then we’ll move forward.”
UCLA led by 11 points at halftime and led by as many as 15 points with 15:12 remaining in the second half. Michigan State got within two points with 43 seconds remaining in the game, but Trent Perry’s six made free throws in the final 40 seconds helped the Bruins put the game away and advance to the Big Ten semifinal round, where they’ll play the No. 18-ranked Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET).
The Bruins had the game’s leading and No. 2 scorers, as Donovan Dent totaled 23 points, 12 assists, six rebounds and four steals and the aforementioned Perry finished with 22 points. Elsewhere for UCLA, Eric Dailey had 14 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and two blocks, while Skyy Clark tallied 15 points. For Michigan State, Jeremy Fears Jr. totaled 21 points and a game-high 13 assists.
Of course, the last time these two teams met (Feb. 17), chaos ensued for UCLA. First, Cronin ejected his own player, Steven Jamerson II, after he committed a hard foul. Then, Cronin told the press that he couldn’t give a “rat’s ass” about the Michigan State student section chanting at Bruins forward Xavier Booker, who transferred to UCLA after playing two seasons at Michigan State.
The Friday night loss dropped Michigan State to 25-7 overall (15-5 in Big Ten play). Prior to Friday’s slate of Big Ten games, FOX Sports bracket forecaster Mike DeCourcy had the Spartans as a No. 2 seed in the West Region of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and the Bruins (23-10, 13-7) as a No. 7 seed in the East Region.
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