Michigan State Basketball: Game-by-game predictions for February 2018

The month of February is upon us and it’s time to look at the final stretch of Big Ten action for Michigan State basketball.

Resiliency has been the key word for Michigan State basketball over the past couple of weeks. Head coach Tom Izzo has been under fire due to the release of an OTL report which detailed potential mishandling(s) of off-court issues over his tenure as head coach.

The Spartans have responded to the shots fired at their head coach with a 3-0 record since the report was made public and a five-game winning streak since a loss to Michigan a few weeks ago.

February will present new challenges as we continue to learn more about what Izzo knows and everything becomes more transparent. It’ll also be a good opportunity for the team to build momentum heading into the month of March.

Michigan State faces an important month of February, beginning with Indiana.

This isn’t the same Indiana team that we’d grown accustomed to with Tom Crean at the helm. He usually had a ton of talent and could pull off upsets here and there and make tournament runs, but Archie Miller’s first season hasn’t quite gone as expect — and there are some injuries to blame for this.

The Hoosiers will be back to relevancy before we know it, but Juwan Morgan and Robert Johnson can only carry this team so far. They won’t be able to lead the Hoosiers over the suddenly-hot Spartans in Bloomington on Saturday night.

Indiana will put up a solid fight, however. The Hoosiers are going to take the Spartans down to the wire thanks to Morgan’s 23-point showing and Johnson’s hot shooting along with the raucous home-court advantage.

The Spartans haven’t won in Bloomington since March of 2015 and it’s a tough place to play, but Jaren Jackson Jr. is going to be a matchup nightmare yet again and Miles Bridges will repeat what he did in the first matchup against Indiana with 20-plus points.

Final Score: Michigan State 77, Indiana 72 (22-3, 10-2 Big Ten)