Big games for MSU this week as they travel to Illinois and Purdue, while the Buckeyes get their first stiff road test of the conference season on Saturday when they travel to Champaign.

Tuesday 1/18
Michigan State @ Illinois
Michigan @ Northwestern

Wednesday 1/19
Iowa @ Ohio State
Penn State @ Purdue

Thursday 1/20
Indiana @ Wisconsin
(Non-Conference: SIU-E @ Northwestern)

Saturday 1/22
Ohio State @ Illinois
Minnesota @ Michigan
Michigan State @ Purdue

Sunday 1/23
Wisconsin @ Northwestern
Indiana @ Iowa

Big Ten standings (through Sunday 1/16):

Ohio State 5-0 18-0
Purdue 4-1 15-3
Michigan State 4-1 12-5
Wisconsin 3-2 13-4
Illinois 3-2 13-5
Minnesota 3-3 14-4
Penn State 3-3 10-7
Northwestern 2-4 11-5
Indiana 1-4 10-8
Michigan 1-4 11-7
Iowa 0-5 7-10

Big Ten +/- standings (through Sunday 1/16):

(+1 for road win, 0 for home win, 0 for road loss, -1 for home loss):

OSU +3
Purdue +2
Illinois +1
MSU +1
Wisconsin 0
Minnesota 0
Penn St. 0
N'western 0
Michigan -2
Indiana -2
Iowa -3

The Buckeyes have a tough one on Saturday in Illinois...but I see Ohio State going 2-0 this week and improving to 20-0.

Interesting week for Northwestern with 3 games on the schedule. The Michigan and SIU-Edwardsville games obviously wouldn't do much for them but if they were to get those wins and a win against Wisconsin it would go a long way for their tournament chances.

Illinois finishes off the Spartans 71-62. Illini are definitely strong at home, going to be tough for the Bucks to pull one off there on Saturday.

I'm bored so I am gonna give predictions on this week's games. I picked Illinois in my ESPN streak tonight (up to 9 in a row!) to beat MSU, so I'm in the mood to pick some Big Ten games.

gorocks99;641290 wrote:Wednesday 1/19
Iowa @ Ohio State
Penn State @ Purdue

Thursday 1/20
Indiana @ Wisconsin
(Non-Conference: SIU-E @ Northwestern)

Saturday 1/22
Ohio State @ Illinois
Minnesota @ Michigan
Michigan State @ Purdue

Sunday 1/23
Wisconsin @ Northwestern
Indiana @ Iowa

Shurna is on fire!!!

Midstate01;643318 wrote:Shurna is on fire!!!

He has got an awful, Shawn Marion-esque shot but when he's hot he's pretty ridiculous.

MSU still has a bunch of tough road games left, along with a couple toughies at home (Illinois, Purdue). Would not be surprised to see the Spartans with an 11-7 or 10-8 record heading into the BTT.

Theyre 4-2....why are people pressing the panic button lol

It's probably more the way they've made it to 4-2 than the fact that they are 4-2. Overtime wins over Northwestern and Wisconsin at home, and a loss to Penn State already on the record. Granted, they're 2-1 against ranked Big Ten teams, but they won those two at home, close. If they can't compete with the very top of the conference home or away, and can't compete with the middle of the conference away, then it will be a long season by MSU's standards. Going 11-7 would have them losing 5 of their remaining 12 games, and when they have six games left against ranked opponents (four away games) it's entirely plausible, especially when you consider that a currently-ranked Big Ten team has yet to lose a conference game at home.

And going 11-7 would have them at 19-11 heading into the BTT, which for a national title contender would be a disappointment for sure.

Watch, now Izzo will have them playing great and they'll go out and finish 13-5 or something crazy like that. But I won't be surprised come March if Sparty is sitting right around 19-11 or so.

Penn State, doin the damn thing yet again! They're down 58-57 with less than 3 minutes to play.

Officials BLEW a critical call that gave Purdue the ball with 5 seconds left and Purdue gets the win 63-62

I think we can end the talk about how PSU should be an easy win when you play them on your home court.

Writerbuckeye;644858 wrote:I think we can end the talk about how PSU should be an easy win when you play them on your home court.

Just because they've had a few close losses lately does not mean a team that lost at home by 10 to Maine should not still be an easy victory.

SportsAndLady;644887 wrote:Just because they've had a few close losses lately does not mean a team that lost at home by 10 to Maine should not still be an easy victory.

You never heard of Woody's most repeated quote??? A team never remains the same, they either improve or get worse.

Big Gain;644899 wrote:You never heard of Woody's most repeated quote??? A team never remains the same, they either improve or get worse.

Hi, welcome to the college basketball forum.

Teams definitely can change throughout a season, I would say a team that has either won or been within 3 points of 4 of the top teams in the conference has proven themselves as a pretty decent team.

What in the world is happening to Michigan State.

Michigan State with loss number 7 on the season, along with conference loss number 3 that still puts them in the upper level of the Big Ten but losing ground fast. They definitely get a break in the schedule with Michigan, Indiana, and Iowa in their immediate future. The wins could help to boost their confidence but until they show something that they can win a few big games, you would have to think there are some more losses to come.

Northwestern gets throttled by Wisconsin earlier today as it's looking like the hole is going to be too big for them to dig out.

To be fair to MSU, i don't think anyone was beating Purdue last night. Mackey was going nuts.

Indiana down almost 20 to Iowa. At what point does Tom Crean get put on the hot seat? The lack of improvement from last year has to be pretty disheartening.

Yeah, I was kind of wondering the same thing. They've got some tough injuries right now with Creek going down again and Jones sitting out today, but still, it is Iowa. I could understand a loss but to get dominated by them is certainly a bad sign.

A B1G win for Iowa, they're deserving.

No NBA players.

Writerbuckeye;644858 wrote:I think we can end the talk about how PSU should be an easy win when you play them on your home court.

Just now figuring that out?