The Bully
I wasn't planning to write about Hunter Dickinson again so soon. Then he stuffed Michigan State in a trash can while telling them, over and over, that he was stuffing them in a trash can.
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Zack Novak was a pest. Nik Stauskas, a heel. Moe Wagner, a troll.
Hunter Dickinson is a bully.
Like the others, he’ll go down as a hated figure among several Big Ten fanbases and beloved by Michigan partisans. He’s had several demonstrative F-you games, particularly against his home-state school, Maryland.
Last night, though, was his F-youest game, and he chose the perfect time: in a revenge game against Michigan State while the Wolverines fight for an NCAA Tournament bid and, suddenly, a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament. Dickinson poured in a career-high 33 points (13/19 FG, 7/9 FT) with nine rebounds and four blocks.
Tom Izzo chose to leave big men Marcus Bingham, Mady Sissoko, and Julius Marble — especially poor 6-foot-9 Julius Marble — one-on-one with Dickinson in the post for much of the game. Dickinson punished the single coverage in every way imaginable and let the MSU bench know what he thought of their choices.
Even when MSU tried to throw extra defenders at Dickinson in the second half, he maneuvered through traffic and got to his spots. He continued to pointedly celebrate each bucket in the direction of the Spartan bench until Izzo blew a gasket:
Dickinson lands on the list of most memorable performances against State — which, incidentally, also includes Novak, Stauskas, and Wagner.
Delightful.
