On February 12, 2013, for the first time in the series' 170-game history, dating back to 1909, the teams met while both were ranked in the Top 10.

The following month, both teams were once again ranked in the Top 10, this time Michigan was on the winning end of a game played at the Crisler Center, by a score of 58–57.

[9] Indiana Mr. Basketball for 2012, Gary Harris, and 2013 Indiana Mr. Basketball Zak Irvin were teammates at Hamilton Southeastern High School, but Irvin signed with Michigan after Harris had joined Michigan State.

[16] It also gave the team consecutive road wins against top five opponents after a 36-game losing streak against them.

[18] Michigan State won by a score of 69–55 securing the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

[19][20] For the first rivalry contest of the 2014–15 Big Ten season, Michigan alum Nik Stauskas and Michigan State alum Draymond Green, the 2014 and 2012 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Players of the Year, respectively, had a highly publicized Twitter war of words and bet on the game.

[23] After Payne (15th) and McGary (21st) were both selected in the first round of the 2014 NBA draft,[24] McGary made his first NBA start on March 13, 2015, for the 2014–15 Oklahoma City Thunder,[25] with Payne in the starting lineup for the 2014–15 Minnesota Timberwolves as the opposing power forward.

[26] The incoming class for the 2017–18 Big Ten season included high school teammates Jordan Poole and Jaren Jackson Jr. who joined Michigan and Michigan State respectively after teaming up to win the 2017 Dicks National High School Championship.

[29] Marcus Bingham, an MSU recruit, was the fourth player set to attend one of the rivals.

The February 18, 2023 meeting in Ann Arbor took place less than a week after the 2023 Michigan State University shooting, with a moment of silence and displays of unity being held.

Another element of the rivalry is that Michigan (1964, 1992*, 1993* and 2018) and Michigan State (1999 and 2001) are the only two schools to have had both their hockey team and basketball team qualify for the final four of the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship and NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in the same season.