The Big Ten men’s basketball season is still in its early stages, but in-state rivals Michigan and Michigan State appear to be on a collision course atop the conference standings.

The No. 20 Wolverines (13-3, 5-0 Big Ten) and No. 12 Spartans (14-2, 5-0) currently sit in a first-place tie in the Big Ten, with both programs enjoying their best starts in recent memory. While Michigan won’t play the first of two games against MSU until Feb. 21 in Ann Arbor, head coach Dusty May confirmed the Wolverines are aware of how their rivals down the road have performed so far this season.

“100%, we keep an eye on everyone in the Big Ten,” May told reporters on Monday. “Obviously, we bump into them in recruiting, we hear about them a lot, and they’re obviously playing at a high, high level right now, so we’re gonna hear about them more.”

In his first season at the helm for the Wolverines, May has been made aware of the importance of the rivalry with Michigan State, which has mostly been a back-and-forth affair during the latter stages of the John Beilein and Juwan Howard eras in Ann Arbor.

“There will be no loved lost on those two nights,” May told Big Ten Network’s Rick Pizzo in an appearance on BTN this week. “It’s intense, and obviously Coach Howard, Coach Beilein, the coaches before more here, they contributed to this rivalry.”

Michigan and Michigan State enjoyed a renaissance in the rivalry during the mid-to-late 2010s, when the series became one of the best in all of college basketball. While matchups between the Wolverines and Spartans are always meaningful, they take on an added importance when both programs are performing at a high level.

“We think it’s better for college basketball when we’re both sitting at the top of the standings,” May said. “And as long as we’re up there, we don’t really care where the Spartans are, but I think it adds more interest to the game, it adds more, it’s good for the state of basketball in Michigan, it’s good for the young players to come to games where there’s such an environment. So all those things are healthy.”

An Indiana native, May said he’s looked up to Michigan State’s Tom Izzo for decades while working his way up the coaching ranks, starting with a student manager position under Indiana legend Bob Knight.

“Coach Izzo is a guy that when you’re a young coach, especially coming into the profession as I did, you look up to the way he did it and how he consistently performed at such a high level. So, we look forward to competing with them in those two games, and also hopefully we can continue down this path on a championship trajectory. There’s a big, big difference between first and second place, so we have a long way to go. But, it’s going to be fun, just battling these great coaches and great programs and we look forward to it.”

While the prospect of Michigan and Michigan State going toe-to-toe for a Big Ten championship is exciting, that only becomes a reality if both teams continue to handle their business in the several weeks leading up to their first meeting on Feb. 21, and the second on March 9 in East Lansing.

To that end, May said the focus remains on Michigan’s next opponent, despite the awareness of what Izzo and the Spartans have cooking down the road.

“We’re not, me personally, I think if we’re thinking about Michigan State right now, we have so many games that we have to focus on,” May said. “Minnesota, and then turn the page to Northwestern, and then turn the page to, I think it’s Purdue after that, but all focus is on Minnesota right now.”

Michigan travels to Minnesota (8-9, 0-6) on Thursday, Jan. 16 for its matchup with the Golden Gophers. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET with FS1 carrying the televised broadcast.

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