It is tough enough to beat the Michigan State Spartans in East Lansing, but when the Wisconsin Badgers go to the Breslin Center on Friday night, they will also have to deal with the fact that Michigan State will be ticked off.
Michigan State’s most recent game was this past Sunday in West Lafayette against Purdue. The Boilermakers pummeled the Spartans by 29 points, flexing their muscles on defense. Michigan State scored only 42 points, making only 2 of 16 3-pointers and earning only six free throws the whole game. Michigan State generated only seven assists in 40 minutes, compared to 18 turnovers. It was a disaster for the Spartans, who were playing their first Big Ten road game in a month. Their previous road game was at Northwestern, one of the two genuinely bad teams in an otherwise deep and robust Big Ten. In other words, it was their first moderate test of any kind in Big Ten play away from East Lansing… and they completely flunked it.
Yes, Michigan State will be angry when Wisconsin plays the Spartans on Friday. This means Wisconsin won’t just need to be better; it will need to be a few notches better. The Badgers won’t get an MSU team which is overconfident or lacking vigilance; just the opposite. UW will play an opponent which has been soaked by a bucket of cold water and ice, given a major wakeup call about its level of preparedness for the rest of the Big Ten season.
This isn’t just a Michigan State home game, which is a tough-enough assignment for any Big Ten road team; this is a Michigan State home game in which the Spartans legitimately have something to prove to themselves and the rest of the conference.
The bad news: Wisconsin figures to get Michigan State’s best shot on Friday night. The good news: If Wisconsin is able to take that best shot and leave the Breslin Center with yet another league road win, we will know this team — in addition to being safely in the NCAA Tournament — can do some real damage in a college basketball season which is completely up in the air at the moment.