Michigan State basketball: 3 reasons the Spartans will knock off No. 17 Indiana

Michigan State basketball needs to bounce back and get that sour taste out of its mouth after Saturday night’s loss to Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Indiana would be the perfect team to do that against.

The Hoosiers are one of the best teams in the Big Ten, sitting at No. 3 in the conference standings, and they’re ranked 17th in the country. They’ve been playing as well as anyone in the league this season and even took down Purdue a few weeks ago.

Michigan State faced Indiana once this season, controlled the game early, let the Hoosiers climb back in it, and ran out of gas in the final 10 minutes to make the final score look lopsided.

I think the Spartans exact revenge on Tuesday night, and here’s why.

3. Malik Hall got back on track

A big factor for the Spartans moving forward is Malik Hall. He had been struggling mightily for a couple of weeks since returning from his second injury and it felt like maybe he was losing confidence. That all changed against Michigan as he finished with 14 points and arguably looked like the best player on the floor for the Spartans.

Getting that confidence back in a hostile road environment was huge and he’s only going to carry that forward into this Indiana matchup.

In case you don’t recall, he missed the first Indiana game and Michigan State could have used his presence off the bench in the post and on offense. His presence could have been the difference in that one.

I think it’ll make a big difference here, especially since he’s playing well again.