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Michigan State Basketball: Game-by-game predictions for December 2017

By Connor Muldowney

PISCATAWAY, NJ - MARCH 2: Head coach Tom Izzo of the Michigan State Spartans cheers on his team against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights during the second half of a college basketball game at the Rutgers Athletic Center on March 2, 2016 in Piscataway, New Jersey. Michigan State defeated Rutgers 97-66. (Photo by Rich Schultz /Getty Images)
PISCATAWAY, NJ - MARCH 2: Head coach Tom Izzo of the Michigan State Spartans cheers on his team against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights during the second half of a college basketball game at the Rutgers Athletic Center on March 2, 2016 in Piscataway, New Jersey. Michigan State defeated Rutgers 97-66. (Photo by Rich Schultz /Getty Images) /
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Michigan State basketball is gearing up for Big Ten season’s early start but the month of December is mostly non-conference games.

The season is rolling right along and we are already headed into the month of December. Michigan State is 6-1 through the first month of action with wins over No. 5 Notre Dame and No. 9 North Carolina, along with UConn, to its name. The resume is already being built and the Spartans should feel good about where they stand.

December should be an interesting one for the green and white as conference play begins with Nebraska and Rutgers, back-to-back, before taking on a slew of non-conference foes prior to the new year.

In fact, the Spartans have eight games in the month of December and two of which are against Big Ten opponents, one is in Detroit against Oakland and the rest will be played in East Lansing against clearly inferior opponents.

How will the Spartans fare in each game during the month of December?

The first Big Ten game of the season — in December — happens to be against one of the only other teams to pull out a win in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Nebraska took down Boston College earlier in the week and will travel to East Lansing to play a red-hot Michigan State team.

The Spartans, coming off back-to-back top-10 wins, are the favorites to run away with the conference and this will be the first test. If they can smack a Nebraska team around for 40 minutes like everyone expects, then it’s OK to feel optimistic about Big Ten title hopes — as if two top-10 wins in a row aren’t enough.

Nebraska is 6-2 on the year but the Cornhuskers don’t exactly have a quality win and they have losses against St. John’s and UCF — not exactly ‘good’ losses. They aren’t a high-scoring team, and that works to Michigan State’s advantage with a defense that’s getting better by the game.

Expect close to a full 40 minutes of solid play from the Spartans as they take care of Nebraska and improve to 1-0 in conference play to start the season.

Final Score: Nebraska 62, Michigan State 83 — (7-1, 1-0 Big Ten)

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