Examining Luka Garza’s wild Michigan State basketball conspiracy theory

With the Michigan vs. Michigan State basketball game still fresh on everyone’s mind, it was no surprise to see the rivalry banter carry through the weekend. Tom Izzo and Dusty May fanned the flames with some pointed comments on Monday. All of this is to be expected given the fact that neither team has played a game since Friday.

What I did not expect to see was a shot across the bow from a player that has not played against Michigan State basketball since 2022.

Luka Garza, now playing in the NBA, appeared on the White Noise podcast with Celtics teammate Derrick White. In the appearance, he suggested that Michigan State intentionally leaves one of their baskets in poor condition and then ensures that the visiting team has to shoot at that basket in the second half.

“It’s the worst rim in college basketball,” said Garza.

The full clip can be found below.

Luka Garza thinks Michigan State intentionally gives the road team the worst rim in the second half 👀

“This is my conspiracy theory… it’s the worst rim in college basketball. The other team comes in the second half and can’t buy a bucket.” pic.twitter.com/mF8N3bCKwW

— White Noise Podcast w/Derrick White (@whitenoisepod_) February 3, 2026

Admittedly, I love this. College sports are unique in the sense that each venue is vastly different, with strange quirks that you’d never find in professional sports. Whether it was Notre Dame growing out the grass in 2005 against USC, or Bo Ryan finding the most obscure basketball manufacturer in the United States to use as his game ball, I find this type of gamesmanship fascinating.

So, naturally, I wanted to see if there was any truth to this statement. I looked at every Michigan State home game over the past five seasons. I broke out the point distribution for Michigan State basketball and its opponents by half. And because there was a lot of “noise” in the data thanks to some overmatched non-conference opponents, I made sure to isolate Big Ten play for further analysis.

All games

Big Ten only

It’s a little sad to report that this may have been a giant waste of time. There’s not much to conclude here. In fact, the data would suggest the opposite of what Garza is saying. Michigan State’s scoring margin decreased in the second half in every year except 2024-25 against all opponents.

In conference play, second halves have gone a little bit better for Michigan State basketball, especially this season and the 2023-24 season. But in 2021-22, the Spartans were a whopping 74 points worse in the second half against Big Ten teams.

In all honesty, this would probably require a larger sample size and some deeper statistical analysis that I don’t have the time or expertise to perform. This analysis also completely ignores the quality of each Michigan State basketball team and their opponent. It’s no coincidence that the best scoring margins (in conference play) coincide with the best Spartan teams over this stretch.

Unfortunately for Garza, it appears as if his “conspiracy theory” is exactly that. For what it’s worth, during Garza’s time at Iowa, he made three trips to the Breslin Center. The Hawkeyes went 1-2 in those games and were outscored in the second half in each of their two losses by a combined 26 points. So, it’s understandable why Garza might feel the way he does.

But at best, the data is inconclusive. And after all, this is still the Big Ten conference here. There are rules. I’ve seen the baskets get measured before the games. And officials routinely stop games if the net gets tangled. You can only get away with so much.

And let’s not forget, Tom Izzo has built Michigan State into a national power by winning plenty of games that are not played at the Breslin Center.

But believe it or not, I’m thrilled that Luka Garza put this out into the universe. The clip mentioned has almost 800,000 views on X.com. Any opponent that was not thinking about the rims at the Breslin Center is definitely thinking about it now. And, perhaps, they’ll really be thinking about it when things aren’t going great in the second half against the Spartans.