No one can deny that No. 19 Illinois and No. 12 Michigan State waged an epic battle Sunday when the Illini visited the Breslin Center in East Lansing, where the Spartans came away battered and perhaps a bit bruised but with an 80-78 win – their 11th victory in a row.

Beyond that, fans of the Illini (13-5, 5-3 Big Ten) and Spartans (16-2, 7-0) could find very little common ground in their assessment of the matchup – especially given how pivotal the officials’ calls were in such a tightly contested affair.

With many Illini fans bemoaning the officiating in Illinois’ sixth loss in its past seven visits to the Breslin Center and Spartans fans accusing their orange-and-blue-backing counterparts of excessive whining, the most objective and sober judgments on social media came from the press and other unbiased sources. (Even if the funniest came from elsewhere.)

Let’s take a quick look at the best and most significant reactions to the Illinois-Michigan State game, starting with a couple of alums:

Several prominent members of the college basketball media weighed in on the Illini during and after the game, unable to help noticing the Illini’s grit – and perhaps the seeds of potential greatness:

CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein deserves his own special shout-out after serving up volume, analysis and humor in a series of posts:

Then you have the sharp, the voice and the former coach, all of them with unique perspectives on what they saw on the floor at the Breslin Center on Sunday:

And this one? Well, we just couldn’t get away with running a social-media reaction story and not including this post:

Michigan State Outlasts Illinois Basketball in Big Ten Slugfest

Michigan State’s Tom Izzo Compares Illinois Basketball to ‘Celtics or Lakers’

Illinois Basketball Makes Significant Moves in NET, KenPom Rankings

For all the scowls, snarls and shouts coming from the Illinois sideline Sunday at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan, Illini coach Brad Underwood was, by comparison, a picture of zen-like contentment by the time he hit the postgame presser following his club’s 80-78 loss to Michigan State.

“Anybody in here expected anything different?” Underwood said with a weary smile to open his remarks. “A good college basketball game.”

Many Illini fans thought not. Social media was bustling in the aftermath with hot takes howling over the foul calls against Illinois and memes clowning the game officials. Illini guard Kasparas Jakucionis fouled out after just nine minutes of game action, and a critical technical foul was issued by referee Jeffrey Anderson on the Illinois bench in the late stages as the Illini were gamely clawing back into the game with Jakucionis on the sideline.

But when given the opportunity in his media session, Underwood – though disappointed – wouldn’t pile on.

“They teed our bench. Their guy was up, but our guys got the T,” Underwood said. “So I didn’t get the T – it was considered on our bench. Unfortunate. Two-point game. But Jeff’s a great official. He’s one of the best in the country.”

As for the whistles on Jakucionis, Underwood gave the officials further grace – mostly.

“I’m not gonna go there without … especially ’til I watch the film,” he said. “But the fourth one was awful. I’ll say that he got shoved in the back and pushed into a guy. And I mean, that one was just gross. Gross. I mean, how?”

If Underwood seemed oddly content as he offered his postgame thoughts, it’s likely because he could be observed extrapolating in real time what his Illini squad will be capable of when fully galvanized and facing something even slightly more favorable than Sunday’s dire game circumstances (including center Tomislav Ivisic playing through a nasty case of strep throat).

“I thought we handled a lot of tough situations today pretty well,” he said. “Best player in the game played [nine] minutes. You saw just a little bit of what he could do when he was in – just controlled the whole game with pick-and-rolls and passes. And, unfortunately, today he didn’t get a play.”

Michigan State Outlasts Illinois Basketball in Big Ten Slugfest

Michigan State’s Tom Izzo Compares Illinois Basketball to ‘Celtics or Lakers’

Illinois Basketball Makes Significant Moves in NET, KenPom Rankings

EAST LANSING, Mich. — No. 12 Michigan State got the test that many were waiting for when it hosted No. 19 Illinois on Sunday afternoon.

The Spartans passed the test, defeating the Fighting Illini 80-78 with an admirable second-half effort.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, who had been quite critical of his team after its win over Penn State on Wednesday, was in much better spirits in his postgame press conference on Sunday.

You can watch below:

Below is a partial transcript from Izzo’s opening statement of his presser:

Izzo: “Wow, just another day in paradise, I guess. But I hope our fans appreciated one of the better games. I mean, it was a crazy game, and I know we were both complaining about calls and this and that, but I thought two teams really competed. I said this before the game, and now I’ll say it after the game: I really do believe they’re the best team in the league right now. I’m not slighting us,I’m not sliding Purdue, I’m not slighting Michigan or anyone else. I just think, right now, that was a tough teamto play. And we did make some mistakes early that really bothered us, because they were scouting report mistakes. And then we missed some free throws early, and they made some shots. I mean, the kid, [Will] Riley, has not been playing well lately, and he had 16 and a halftime. He was unbelievable. And you have Kasparas [Jakucionis], got in foul trouble, that helped us, I mean, there’s no question about it. I love the kid [Dra] Gibbs-Lawhorn, tough. I mean, they play hard – [Morez] Johnson –  they play hard, but we did a hell of a job on [Ben] Humrichous. … Had a lot of good players. I thought we did a decent job on [Kylan] Boswell. We didn’t take many 3s, it was because of the way they guarded. We thought we could go inside, we did. We weren’t very good in rebounding in the first 10 minutes of the game. They scored 26 points. Second 10, they scored 10 points, and we ended up losing the rebound battle by 1. But that team is really good; we’re both 1, 2 in the league in rebounding.”

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