EAST LANSING — Michigan basketball isn’t Indiana football, but there are similarities:
A quick turnaround in Year 1 under a new coach, setting up an even better team in Year 2.
Using the transfer portal to revise a roster while bringing established talent from the coach’s previous stop.
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A propensity for blowing out inferior opponents.
The Hoosiers, of course, set the bar sky high in 2025 by going undefeated and winning a College Football Playoff championship in the second season under Curt Cignetti. But if you’re noticing these similarities, it’s not a coincidence.
WINNERS/LOSERS: Michigan State basketball’s cold shooting just too costly vs Michigan
Michigan coach Dusty May said as much after Michigan basketball’s impressive 83-71 win over Michigan State in East Lansing on Friday, Jan. 30.
Michigan’s victory over MSU is the school’s first in East Lansing since January 13, 2018. That’s before the COVID-19 pandemic, before Curt Cignetti became a household name and before Dusty May even got his head coaching break at Florida Atlantic.
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In other words? A lot has changed. But this 2025-26 version of Michigan? That team entered Friday with an unblemished record vs. the Spartans in East Lansing, May said.
Michigan players pose around head coach Dusty May at post game interview to celebrate 82-71 win over Michigan State at Breslin Center in East Lansing on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026.
“Once again, we stole from the Indiana-Penn State football game,” May said. “And their coach made a great point; coach Cignetti just said, ‘This team has never played here before,’ so we just kind of went into it, obviously last year we were 0-2 against these guys, but this team that we have in our locker room, they were 0-0, and so we’re not talking about what the past teams have done.
“Obviously this is important for our fans, but for us, this was more about winning a Big Ten game on the road and staying in the hunt because we’ve got a very challenging schedule coming up.”
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To compare anyone to Indiana football almost feels like comparing a quarterback taken in the sixth round of the NFL draft to Tom Brady; you just shouldn’t do it.
But when the coach himself says he stole from Cignetti? Sometimes we have to listen.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball isn’t Indiana football, but there are similarities
