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Officials make huge decision on status of Michigan vs. Michigan State rivalry game

On3 imageby:Tyler Mansfield•01/08/22•

TMansfieldMedia

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Saturday’s rivalry matchup between Michigan and Michigan State men’s basketball has been postponed due to COVID-19 related issues within the Wolverines’ program, it was announced early Saturday morning.

According to the release from Michigan State’s program, the Spartans and Wolverines will “coordinate with the Big Ten Conference office to reschedule the game.”

Saturday’s meeting would’ve marked the 189th all-time matchup between Michigan State and Michigan, with the Wolverines holding a 102-86 lead in the series. Despite Michigan’s lead, the Spartans have won four of the past six meetings after the two sides split in the 2020-21 regular season.

Michigan State (13-2 overall, 4-0 Big Ten) returns to action Wednesday at home against Minnesota, while Michigan (7-6, 1-2) is scheduled to host Purdue on Tuesday.

Michigan basketball’s Tuesday game canceled due to COVID-19 outbreak

COVID-19 continues to impact the college basketball season. This time, Michigan has to cancel a game because of protocols.

The Wolverines announced their Tuesday, Dec. 21 game against Purdue Fort Wayne had been canceled due to COVID-19 issues within the Mastodons program. It’s part of a rash of COVID-related cancellations across the sport.

At the time, Michigan was 7-4 overall this season and 1-1 in Big Ten action. The Wolverines had recently beaten Southern Utah 87-50 at Crisler Arena and were gearing up to dive into conference play in the coming weeks.

College basketball has been dealing with COVID-19 cancellations for the last couple weeks. According to Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, about 34 teams were with COVID-19 issues and have had games canceled or postponed as a result as of Tuesday morning.

Michigan entered a holiday break before a Dec. 30 matchup with UCF and then began Big Ten play on Jan. 4 against Rutgers. Now, the Wolverines are again shut down due to COVID-19 issues.

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.