Michigan State Basketball: Game-by-game predictions for February

Saturday, Feb. 11 — vs. Iowa (East Lansing, Mich.)

Iowa always seems to present a tough matchup for Michigan State. In fact, the Spartans went 29-6 last season and were relatively dominant in conference play outside of a three-game skid in January, but two of their six losses on the season were to the Hawkeyes.

That’s kind of crazy to think about. Iowa accounted for one-third of Michigan State’s losses in 2015-16 during a year in which many believe Tom Izzo had his best team since 1999-2000.

Like Michigan State, though, Iowa lost a ton of talent from last year’s team and both are very young this season. These two could be the class of the Big Ten a year or two down the line with the gradually improving young players on the roster, but the Spartans’ youth may just be a little more athletic than Iowa’s.

Michigan State will exact revenge on the Hawkeyes for last year’s two beatdowns in Iowa City and East Lansing. Eron Harris and Tum Tum Nairn remember losing twice to these guys and that won’t happen again as both of them have big games. Yes, you read that right, Tum Tum will have a big game. For him, anything more than two points and four assists is a big game — expect seven points and five assists.

Harris finishes with 18 as he finally gets hot again.

Prediction: Iowa 57, Michigan State 70