Michigan State basketball faces incredibly daunting task at Purdue

It's been a whole decade since Michigan State basketball last won in West Lafayette. The Spartans' kryptonite over the years has been Mackey Arena, and that includes some of Michigan State's best teams over the years like the 2015-16 team and the 2017-18 squad. No one has been able to overcome the Goliath that has been Mackey.

And when you look at this year's team that has struggled on the road and with consistency, it seems like a forgone conclusion that it will drop another game at Mackey to fall to 17-12 overall.

A three-game losing streak heading into the final two games of the regular season doesn't exactly instill confidence that the NCAA Tournament streak will continue. It would nearly crush hopes of a tournament berth -- but not quite. If Michigan State can rebound to beat Northwestern and Indiana, it should be able to get into the tournament field as an 8-9 seed.

However, Tom Izzo isn't one to just concede defeat. He's not giving up yet.

Nor should he. He's built an elite program that has fallen on hard times in recent years, but he has the veteran group that could get the job done against a Purdue team that feels like Zach Edey and Braden Smith and a bunch of other guys. If they can neutralize both of those behemoth talents, they could pull off the shocking upset -- we've seen crazier before this season.

Heck, Northwestern went into Mackey and nearly pulled off the massive upset. It can be done with the right game plan (cough, more Xavier Booker minutes, cough).

It's going to take a perfect effort on the road and guys like Malik Hall, AJ Hoggard, Jaden Akins, and Tyson Walker will need to play their best games of the season, but it can be done.

The task is daunting, but it's time for this team to put up or shut up.