Greg Gard and Tom Izzo are good friends and the two learn a lot from each other every time they play — and it’s usually a pretty good game. Friday’s Michigan State vs Wisconsin game will be no different.
The No. 10 Spartans will head to Madison to face the suddenly-hot Wisconsin Badgers. The Badgers were just 9-5 after losing to Purdue by 16 at home which sparked a run for Wisconsin, winning eight out of 10 games, including two road wins over top-10 teams.
The Badgers have some really good wins this season, but they’ve also lost some winnable games against TCU, Villanova, Indiana, and USC. There’s been good and bad.
For Michigan State, it’s been the same, but with more consistent success. The Spartans began the season 19-2 before losing two straight games to Michigan and Minnesota. They then returned home to beat No. 5 Illinois in overtime before the Badgers handed the Illini their second straight loss.
As you can imagine, Wisconsin isn’t exactly out of the Big Ten title picture just yet.
So what’s on the line on Friday night?
Big Ten title positioning is on the line
Entering Friday’s game, Michigan State is tied for third place in the Big Ten, just percentage points behind the second-place Illini. The Spartans are tied with Nebraska and Purdue, and if things go poorly on Friday night, they’ll be sliding down outside of the double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament and into a sixth-place tie with Wisconsin.
That would effectively end Michigan State’s Big Ten title hopes for the season. No, the hopes wouldn’t be officially dead, but they may as well be at that point. Having four losses with the first-place team having only one with six games left is not ideal.
Losing to Wisconsin would not only slide the Spartans down to a sixth-place tie after being second or third all season, but it would also drop them a seed line in NCAA Tournament projections.
I get it, none of that means much with a whole month to play in the regular season still, but this is the time of year that you want to start catching fire and not losing road games against unranked teams.
Wisconsin is a good team, but this is a game Michigan State has to win if it wants to remain in the race.