Sunday’s basketball matchup between Michigan and Michigan State at Breslin Center feels like the start of a new era. Not only is it the first meeting of the rivals this decade, but it’s also the first time since Feb. 27, 2007 that a head coach other than Tom Izzo or John Beilein will prowl the sidelines for either side — Juwan Howard is in his first season as Michigan’s head coach.

Howard went 5-1 against MSU as a player in the early 1990s; his only loss to the Spartans came on Feb. 15, 1992, when Howard scored 12 points and had five rebounds before fouling out with 12.3 seconds after starting an altercation with MSU guard Mark Montgomery. (Howard apologized after the game, telling the Detroit News, “It was just frustration. I want to apologize to him for what I did.”)

Still, even with the fresh start on one side, there’s still plenty of history between the two teams on the court. Let’s take a look at what the last decade brought in the rivalry:

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The teams

Michigan and Michigan State played 19 times in the 2010s, with the Spartans edging the Wolverines, 10 wins to nine. The point totals were similarly close, however, with MSU outscoring U-M 1,314-1,273, or an average of 2.2 points, over the 19 games. The 2017 Wolverines had the biggest blowout in the decade, destroying the Spartans by 29 points, 86-57, on Feb. 7, 2017. The Spartans’ biggest margin of victory came on Feb. 12, 2013, when MSU hammered U-M by 23 points, 75-52.

For a series as close as it was, the Spartans and Wolverines went to overtime just once, in MSU’s 76-66 victory on Feb. 1, 2015. Home court played a big part, too, as Michigan went 5-3 at Crisler and Michigan State went 5-3 at Breslin. The Spartans get to claim neutral-site bragging rights, though, as MSU went 2-1 in three Big Ten tournament meetings, including their most recent meeting in March 2019.

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The players

No player scored more in the rivalry during the 2010s than MSU’s Cassius Winston, who has 105 points in seven games against U-M. Gary Harris nearly matched Winston, though, with 96 points, despite playing in just five games against the Wolverines from 2013-14. Derrick Walton did his part for the Wolverines, with 96 points in six games against the Spartans. Trey Burke, who played in just four of the 19 rivalry games, averaged 17.5 points in those games (over 36 minutes a game).

The games

The Spartans may have the edge in wins over the decade, and the top scorer, but the Wolverines get the nod for the most iconic game: On Jan. 13, 2018, Moritz Wagner went off for 27 points on 8-for-13 shooting, including makes on three of his four 3-point attempts. Wagner then took his swag to the next level, throwing in a wink toward a heckler at the Breslin Center, and finally, a “shush” gesture after hitting a momentum-killing 3-pointer, a move that echoed the swagger of Nik Stauskas earlier in the decade. "I couldn't help myself on that one," Wagner told the Free Press after the game. "Nik did it. That was (a favorite) of mine. So I kind of embraced it."

For the Spartans, Bryn Forbes had the highest-scoring game of the decade against the Wolverines, putting up 29 points on Feb. 6, 2016, in an 89-73 rout that was more of a blowout than the final score indicates. Forbes hit eight of 10 3-point attempts — including seven in the first half — but was mostly wide open on his looks, making it easy. "I was surprised about a couple of them," Forbes said to the Freep after the game. "When I was extremely open, it was kind of like ... I took an extra step, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I really am this open.' It felt good, though."

Forbes has the scoring title, but Winston takes the decade’s title for guts for his play on Feb. 24, 2019, when he almost carried the Spartans over the Wolverines in Ann Arbor. Winston, a newly named captain, played all 40 minutes and scored 27 points, adding eight assists, two steals and two rebounds. Of those 27 points, 19 came in the second half, as Winston drove deep into the paint to create offense. It was more than enough to leave the opposing coach in awe, as Beilein told the Freep: "He just gets into these little areas, and then he's got that floater game that very, very few players have. I mean, it is hard to be able to go full-speed, stop, throw it up and get it to the rim. He's one of the best I've ever seen at it."

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The coaches

As we noted earlier, the men on the sideline for U-M and MSU remained the same, with Izzo and Beilein lasting the entire decade. But, hey, it's Juwan Howard's turn to make his debut at head coach. So we'll go back a bit further to see how each of the past three coaches at each school fared in their first rivalry matchup:

John Beilein, 2007-08: The Wolverines got an ugly welcome in East Lansing as MSU's Drew Neitzel scored 18 points and added seven assists, seven rebounds and two steals in a 77-62 win for the Spartans. It was MSU's 10th straight win in East Lansing in the rivalry, leading to this headline in the Freep: "MSU vs. U-M isn't much of a hoops rivalry." Oops.

Tommy Amaker, 2001-02: It was more of the same in the Wolverines' 71-44 loss, their eighth straight loss to MSU. Then again, as the Freep noted, there was a silver lining for U-M: the 27-point margin was (slightly) better than the 29.8-point average spread over MSU's previous four victories.

Brian Ellerbe, 1997-98: The Wolverines continued a wave of success started under the Fab Five with a 79-69 thumping in which Maceo Baston and Robert Traylor combined for 43 points, nearly all of them in the paint. It was their ninth win in 11 games in the rivalry.

Tom Izzo, 1995-96: How long ago was this? In addition to Izzo's brutal baptism, a 76-54 loss, the sports front of the Detroit News (the Freep had the day off) featured stories about the success of the Pistons' Grant Hill, Steve Yzerman's impending 500th goal and the triumph of a 32-year-old journeyman QB by the name of ... Jim Harbaugh.

Jud Heathcote,1976-77: The only thing more dominant than the sixth-ranked Wolverines, who rolled to a 83-70 win, were the referees, who handed out 51 personal fouls — and 'T'-ed up Heathcote for good measure, early in the game.

Gus Ganakas, 1969-70: Ganakas' Spartans had the best player in sophomore Ralph Simpson, who scored 32 despite missing 20 of his 31 field-goal attempts, but the Wolverines triumphed thanks to double-digit scoring efforts from five of the seven players to take the court.

Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford.