The regular season is winding down and will end Sunday with an epic showdown between the Wolverines and Spartans
Mar 2, 2026 at 1:56 am ET • 1 min read
The final game on CBS before we get to the last week of conference tournaments will be played Sunday at the Crisler Center, where Michigan will host Michigan State. It'll be a showdown between in-state rivals that are both in the top eight of Monday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Duke remains No. 1 for the ninth straight day.
Michigan is No. 2. Michigan State is No. 8.
Sunday's tip is set for 4:30 p.m. ET.
Will it determine the Big Ten title? No. Impressively, the Wolverines have already locked that up thanks to a 17-1 record in the league with just two regular-season games remaining. Michigan State and Nebraska are tied for second in the conference standings, three games behind Michigan with 14-4 records in the league, and it doesn't take a mathematician to grasp that you cannot make up a three-game deficit in any regular-season standings with only two regular-season games remaining.
So, no, it won't be for a conference championship.
And, as long as nobody gets injured between now and then, it should feature two of the top candidates for Big Ten Player of the Year -- namely Michigan's Yaxel Lendeborg and Michigan State's Jeremy Fears Jr., the latter of whom got 21 points, nine assists, four rebounds and a steal in Sunday's 77-64 win at Indiana that extended the Hoosiers' losing streak to four games and sent them even further away from the bubble of the 2026 NCAA Tournament.
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Michigan State moving from No. 10 to No. 8 in Monday's Top 25 And 1 because of Sunday's win at Indiana caused Iowa State and Illinois to be pushed down one spot each, no fault of their own. Similarly, Purdue dropping from No. 14 to No. 16 in Monday's Top 25 And 1 because of Sunday's loss at Ohio State caused Virginia and Gonzaga to be advanced one spot each, no credit of their own, especially considering both are coming off of weekend losses -- Virginia's happening at Duke, Gonzaga's happening at Saint Mary's.
