Suton says Badgers play 'dirty'

EAST LANSING - Why bother with diplomacy? Goran Suton is a Michigan State fifth-year senior who has no problem saying exactly what he feels about the Wisconsin basketball team.

"I don't like Wisconsin, I don't think it's any secret," Suton said Friday after practice. "I don't think they like us either. I like Michigan more than Wisconsin. That's pretty bad."

And Sunday should be pretty good. The surging Badgers (17-9 overall, 8-6 Big Ten) will visit Breslin Center for their only regular-season meeting with the No. 6 Spartans (20-5, 10-3) on the same day MSU is honoring its 1979 national championship team.

Rivalry, history and title aspirations all will offer incentive for the first-place Spartans, who are a game ahead of 9-4 Purdue after Tuesday's 72-54 loss at Purdue.

The rivalry aspect should not be underestimated. Over the past decade, the Badgers and Spartans have played in a lot of important and dramatic games.

In the 1999-2000 season, MSU beat Wisconsin four times, including a grinder in the national semifinals, en route to the national championship. Since then, the Badgers have done most of the winning.

Wisconsin is 11-3 vs. MSU since coach Bo Ryan arrived for the 2001-02 season. Six of those victories have involved late-game comebacks:

• In 2002, Wisconsin came back from 10 down and a late tip-in from MSU's Kelvin Torbert was correctly disallowed, preserving a 64-63 final that halted MSU's 53-game winning streak at Breslin Center. The Badgers finished tied for the Big Ten title, a game ahead of MSU.

• In 2004, MSU had a chance to clinch the Big Ten championship at Breslin, but Devin Harris hit a tying 3-pointer, MSU's Paul Davis had to leave with cramps after scoring 26 points, MSU's Chris Hill missed two free throws that could have won it at the end of regulation, and the Badgers won in overtime.

• Less than two weeks later, Harris hit another late, game-tying 3-pointer and Wisconsin snuck away with a 68-66 win in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals.

• In 2005, MSU blew a nine-point lead in the final two minutes in Madison, missing several free throws in the process.

• In 2007, MSU led for most of the game in Madison, but a deep 3-pointer from Wisconsin's Kammron Taylor with 3.9 seconds left delivered a 52-50 victory for the Badgers.

• In last season's Big Ten Tournament semifinals, Wisconsin came back from a 12-point deficit in the second half to prevail 65-63. That cost MSU a shot at the tournament title, a top-4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the chance to play in the Midwest Regional, which had its semifinals and final in Detroit.

After that one, Izzo wept openly in MSU's locker room and said he wanted it to "hurt every bit as much as it does so I can remember every frickin' minute."

"That was probably the toughest," MSU senior guard Travis Walton said of that loss compared with others in his MSU career. "As far as what we put into that game, how we played through the whole game, and how we lost the game."

MSU has managed to get some shots in at the Badgers over the past seven seasons. In 2007, MSU upset No. 1 Wisconsin at Breslin Center, a defeat that ultimately kept the Badgers from sharing the Big Ten title with Ohio State.

And Wisconsin actually hasn't won at Breslin since 2004, dropping three straight by an average of 10.1 points a game.

"We both took a lot of things from each other," Walton said. "If we're 1-15 and they're 2-14 or whatever, it would still be an intense game."

This one is always intense, from the head coaches to the players.

"There's always got to be a little dislike for your rival, and that goes without saying," Izzo said, "so it's a good deal."

This goes beyond how the games have ended. Suton, who has 50 points and 36 rebounds in his past four games against Wisconsin, said he doesn't like how the Badgers play.

"Yeah, they're dirty," Suton said. "They push, they hold."