I've done this from time to time over the years on the various iterations of the board, but not for awhile. Lots of room for discussion and of course age (and games you saw and didn't see) is a major factor as well. Here are my current top five, in descending order...

5. 2000 Michigan State 114 Michigan 63 - The all time beat down of beatdowns. So many things conspired to make this one...MSU clinched the Big Ten title that day, always a big deal (and their third straight at that point). Mateen Cleaves set the all time single game Big Ten record for assists with 20, in his final game at Breslin. Charlie Bell scored 31 points. This wasn't just the biggest win over Michigan ever, it was the biggest Big Ten win for MSU in history (and remains so). It was also the clearest statement that the tide had firmly turned, decisively so, in this rivalry, and that would last essentially until John Beilein got a few years under his belt and got it to an almost equilibrium (not quite ). MSU would win the national title about a month later.

4. 2013 Michigan State 75 Michigan 52 - Michigan came into this game riding a tidal wave of hype. The "We On" shirt...the 70s nostalgics reveling in M and IU being seen as national title contenders, etc. Meanwhile, MSU was only one game worse than the Wolverines overall coming into this one at Breslin and despite being the dominant program in the region for the previous 15 years, wasn't receiving much attention. Breslin was on fire for this one...the noise level was off the charts and never let up as MSU stormed out of the gate and absolutely crushed Michigan. MSU outshot Michigan, crushed them on the offensive glass and shockingly forced 16 TOs while only committing 8 of their own. Gary Harris led a balanced MSU attack with 17 points, 4 starters scored in double digits and freshmen Denzel Valentine and Matt Costello had nice contributions off the Spartan bench. This one was a complete wipeout.

3. 1990 MIchigan State 78 Michigan 70 - MSU had lost an earlier heartbreaker to the defending national champs in Ann Arbor, but had still managed to carve out a share of the conference lead with Purdue going into this one, the first time Michigan came to Breslin. MSU rode 36 points from superstar guard Steve Smith and six points in the final 1:50 from forward Matt Steigenga to hold off Michigan and claim the first Spartan win in the series since 1987. This was the game that cemented MSU's conference title challenge as being real, and a couple of weeks later, they would claim it outright in a huge, tight win over Purdue at home. The fact that MSU won this one without the services of sharp shooting senior guard Kirk Manns made it even sweeter.

2.2019 Michigan State 65 Michigan 60- MSU had already swept the Wolverines in the regular season, en route to a share of the Big Ten regular season title. This one was for the conference tournament crown and there was a suspicion that perhaps a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament might be in the balance (that ended up not being the case). As occurred in the earlier two meetings, MSU struggled early. The Wolverines were once again outplaying MSU and then Kyle Ahrens got hurt with a severe ankle injury. It took 27 points from senior Matt McQuaid (a career high) and huge baskets late from Big Ten POY Cassius Winston to turn it around and give MSU the first (and only) 3-0 season sweep in rivalry history. MSU scored the last 10 points of the game to go from 5 down to 5 point winners.

1. 1986 Michigan State 74 Michigan 59 - This one didn't have as much riding on it as some of the others on this list. MSU would finish 3rd in the league at 11-7 while Michigan would win the BIg Ten outright. However, it will likely always be my favorite, as there was so much going on. This was at a point where M had started to feel they owned the state again, after several years of attrition in which the high points all belonged to MSU (including the 1979 national title, of course). M was once again seen as a national title contender while MSU was viewed as Scott Skiles and a bunch of relative nobodies. MSU won the first game at Jenison by a 91-79 count, but Michigan was having the better year overall. WOlverine guard Antoine Joubert popped off in the media leading up to the rematch in Crisler about how Michigan would be ready this time and guaranteeing a win. This is the game where Skiles told Joubert at center court, just before the tip, that he would need to "lose about 20 pounds to guard me, fat boy." Only one of those guys backed up their words that day as Skiles dropped 20 on the Wolverines while Joubert only managed 8. Darryl Johnson led MSU with 26 in the win.