Michigan State basketball just following yearly trend of early February slump

There's a reason the famous saying goes, "January, February, Izzo" and not "January, Izzo, March". Long story short, the long-time Michigan State basketball coach struggles seemingly every season in February before strong March runs.

It's almost an annual tradition at this point.

For the first time in program history, Michigan State was undefeated in December and January and that 13-game winning streak was promptly ended when the calendar turned to February and the Spartans were on a two-game West Coast swing. They lost both.

Now, sitting at 18-4 with some fans claiming that the sky is falling, Michigan State has to figure out how to stop this recent skid and there's some good news regarding this recent losing skid: it's nothing new.

In fact, @TheRealSharty on X posted that Michigan State should never play a game until the first six days of February are over and someone responded with an interesting statistic.

The first week of February is statistically the worst for Michigan State over the past decade.

Just look at that horrendous win percentage to begin February over the past 10 years. A paltry 37.5% win rate in the first week of February is staggering, but it's not quite surprising given the fact that Michigan State almost always has a 2-3-game losing streak around this time. Also, excellent work here by X user @LarryKazamias.

The good news? Michigan State is known for this skid and it usually isn't the end of the world -- previous Big Ten champions and Final Four teams have suffered through this same stretch.

More good news? The worst week of the season (first week of February) is usually followed by a tremendous second week of February, the best statistical winning percentage for Michigan State in any timeframe over the past 10 years (93.8%).

So for all of you worrying about the sky falling, just know that Izzo always figures it out the next week and usually responds with a winning streak.