By the time reporters were done asking questions of John Beilein and Tom Izzo following Michigan State's win over Michigan Saturday night, the two coaches had one of their own: Who won the Duke-North Carolina game?
Such is the magnitude of that rivalry. Mere moments after the dust had settled on arguably the biggest showdown ever between Michigan and Michigan State, one that determined a share of the Big Ten championship, both head coaches wanted to know the result of another showdown in another conference.
And it's Beilein's and Izzo's hope that one day the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry will be on the same level. A good way to get there would be playing each other in the final game of the season every year, just like Duke and UNC. Both sound like they're ready to pitch it to the Big Ten.
"If they listen to Tom and I and say, make this the last game of every year for years, we'll be in this thing," said Beilein. "Will we always be playing for the championship, you don't know, but I just think it's a great concept for us to look at. Who won the Duke-North Carolina game?"
North Carolina, Beilein was told by the reporters on hand.
"Isn't that a great thing for us to have? I was just thinking about it, last year they won the regular season too, we won the Big Ten tournament. You guys should be writing about that stuff. I mean, in our own state. There's 14 teams in this league and you got the two champions last year, and maybe we'll do it again," Beilein said. "This is a great time for big-time basketball in this state. It's wonderful.
"I know you appreciate that, but this is a very unique situation that we're all in. Two great programs, and let's just hope we can both keep it going for as long as we can because it's great entertainment, it's great Saturday night basketball."
The action lived up to the billing at the Breslin Center. In their second top-10 matchup this season, the Wolverines went up early, but the Spartans, energized by a raucous crowd on senior night, stormed back in the second half. It was the first season finale between the two rivals since 2011 and just the fifth this century.
"John's right," said Izzo, without being prompted. "This should be the last game every year, here or there. Maybe we'll work into that because it was a hell of a basketball game, electric crowd."
One player who's on board with the idea? Cassius Winston, who scored a game-high 23 points Saturday night, the final flourish on his resume for Big Ten Player of the Year.
"It's good for the fans, it's good for the rivalry," Winston said. "It's good for everything just to have this game with that much on the line."
Adding to the intrigue Saturday night was the fact the two teams were squaring off for the second time in two weeks. That put two of the best coaches in college basketball to the test. Michigan had Michigan State out of sorts early on by adjusting its ball-screen defense from the first matchup -- "a great move on their part," Izzo said. But the Spartans eventually cracked the code.
"We were making some adjustments on the run, too," said Izzo. "I really have a better feel for all my NBA buddies that tell me the most exciting thing about pro ball is the playoffs and how you have these chess matches in a best-of-seven (series). We don't get to do that in college, and today for John and I was a miniature chess match. We had to figure out what we could do different.
"I thought he made better moves than I did and really hurt us the first half, but it worked out in our advantage in the end."
For Izzo, it's a win he'll long remember.
"I think it'll go down as one of the more special ones, just because of the fact that it was the last game, for our championship, against your rival, on senior night. That kind of fills all the boxes," he said.
With a conference record of 16-4, Michigan State will share the Big Ten title with Purdue.
"I congratulate them on winning a piece of the championship. It's really hard to do," Beilein said. "To finish your year 16-4, I mean, that's really hard to do. Win on the road, win at home, almost all your games. They did a great job."
And they saved their best for last, knocking off their rival in the final game of the season by catching fire in the second half.
"Hell of a game," said Izzo. "Maybe this will be a Duke-Carolina thing. By the way, who won that game?"
