The feeling around East Lansing is back to what it once was.

Without anything truly tangible to play for and an outright Big Ten title already sealed, No. 8 Michigan State delivered one more time in the regular season, cruising past No. 17 Michigan -again - by a score of 79-62 on Sunday afternoon.

“You don’t want to lose on senior night,” said freshman guard Jase Richardson after the game. “You don’t want to have your seniors have a bad memory about this, so we had to come out and fight. You don’t want to lose rivalry games, especially when so many people want to talk about it and so many people have something to say about the rivalry."

Fight, they did — almost literally.

Junior guard Tre Holloman may have had a career-high 20 points, but what he will be remembered for today was when he shoved Michigan’s L.J. Cason and Phat Phat Brooks for standing on the middle of MSU’s logo while the seniors were ceremonially kissing the court.

“That’s a special moment for our seniors,” said Holloman about the altercation. Holloman also claimed that he told Cason and Brooks to move before getting physical.

“If it happened like I heard, I’m still not gonna let Tre get away with it, but I’m not gonna be quite as mad at him as I would have been,” said MSU head coach Tom Izzo.

It can be argued over and over again about whether anyone on the Michigan side knew about MSU’s tradition of kissing mid-court upon exiting the game for the final time. What speaks volumes is that there is at least one person on the Michigan State side of things - a non-senior at that - who is willing to do what it takes to give his teammates the moment they deserve and live with the consequences of doing it.

Senior Night at Michigan State is not just about the seniors; in this case, another player whose time to kiss the Spartan logo has not yet arrived was willing to help safeguard the tradition.

The Spartans wanted this win in a bad way.

“I didn’t want to lose my last game on this court, and I feel like everybody else knew that that wasn’t an option and put their best foot forward for us to win,” said senior guard Jaden Akins.

In the end, the final buzzer sounded without further incident and the celebration ensued. Virtually nobody at the Breslin Center left their seat, as the official recognition of the seniors occurred and green and silver confetti rained down as the team’s 2025 Big Ten banner was revealed.

“I did (imagine a moment like that),” said senior center Szymon Zapala. “That was why I came here. That’s what I wanted to do here. That was my expectation, that was the goal.”

This team is a group of guys who have simply found a way game in and game out - and have continually defied the critics. MSU started the year unranked and was picked to finish fifth in the Big Ten. Instead, they started 18-2 overall and 9-0 in conference play.

That wasn’t good enough because of a supposed weak schedule. The claim was briefly reinforced by a stretch of three losses in four games, particularly with the gauntlet Michigan State had in front of itself, with five ranked opponents to face in the final seven games of the regular season.

The Spartans won all seven.