Michigan State Basketball: 5 bold predictions for January 2021

EAST LANSING, MI - DECEMBER 06: Marcus Bingham Jr. #30, Gabe Brown #44, A.J. Hoggard #11 and Rocket Watts #2 of the Michigan State Spartans celebrate a play in the second half of the game against the Western Michigan Broncos at Breslin Center on December 6, 2020 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /

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Dec 28, 2020; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Michigan State Spartans forward Joey Hauser (20) is introduced prior to the game against the Minnesota Gophers at Williams Arena. Mandatory Credit: Harrison Barden-USA TODAY Sports /

1. MSU beats at least three ranked teams

The upcoming schedule doesn’t do a team looking for its identity any favors. Michigan State is fresh off a three-game losing streak and ended that with a grind-it-out win against Nebraska in which they surrendered a 17-point second half lead and only won by seven.

Now it’s time to face some of the conference’s big boys.

The Spartans will host Rutgers and Illinois this month while traveling to Iowa, Rutgers and Ohio State. That’s five ranked opponents (well, four but they play Rutgers twice). If they can win three of those, I think they get back on track and begin to look like a serious threat once again in the Big Ten title race. Two more losses would mean they’d have to likely win out in February and March but that’s Tom Izzo’s sweet spot.

The winner of the Big Ten this year could lose 6-7 games.

Michigan State beats Rutgers and Illinois at home and steals one on the road and I’m going to guess it’ll come against Ohio State.

The rest of the month’s schedule will also be tough with games against Purdue and Indiana, but both come at home so those should be wins, but we’ll see.

I’m going out on the limb and predicting a 6-2 record for MSU in January.

Next. Top 5 MSU basketball moments of 2020. dark

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