Illinois Game Preview

Last Night’s Dueling 14-Point Comebacks

• The Comeback
  Minnesota comes back from 14 down to force the game to OT and beat Wisconsin.  29 points on 16 FG attempts for Lawrence Westbrook.
• Escape from Evanston
  Purdue takes advantage of missed free throws to mount their comeback from 14 down and nip Northwestern.  I’d wager we won’t see another win in conference play this year by a team with a 33.8% TO%.

Illinois Game Preview

4:00 Saturday.  The Breslin Center.  ESPN.

In a conference in which almost every team has improved from last season, the Illini have improved the most.  They enter this game with an overall record comparable to ours: 15-2.  Their only losses were a home game against (a still-undefeated) Clemson and a road game against Michigan.  They’ve been very solid in conference play to date, beating Purdue on the road and taking care of business against Indiana and Michigan at home.  (What’s the deal with playing two games against the same team within your first four conference games?  What was wrong with the old out-and-back conference scheduling model?)  The Illini and Gophers are now the only two one-loss teams nipping at MSU’s heels in the conference standings.

Last year’s Illinois team went just 5-13 in conference play, despite a pretty solid statistical profile, which included a #21 national ranking in adjusted defensive efficiency.  This year, their defense has gotten even better, currently ranking 10th best in the country.  Meanwhile, they’ve improved dramatically on offense, going from 83rd nationally to 33rd.

The biggest improvement on offense has been in the shooting department.  The Illini’s 3-point shooting percentage has increased from 31.9% to 39.2%, and their free throw percentage has increased from 60.8% to 73.2% (partially due to the graduation of Shaun Pruitt).  They’ve reduced their turnovers somewhat, as well.

Offensive rebounding, meanwhile, has become a weakness; Pruitt’s graduation probably has something do with that, as well.  And, while the Illini are making a higher percentage of their free throws, they’re not getting to the line very often.  Their free throw rate ranks in the bottom ten among all Division 1 teams.

As the Big Ten Geeks have noted several times, Illinois seems be a very rare bird on offense: a perimeter-oriented team that doesn’t shoot many 3-pointers (3FGA/FGA=27.6%).  Instead, they rely on mid-range jump shooting from 7’1″ Mike Tisdale (51.0% 2pt%), 6’10” Mike Davis (53.6%), and 6’3″ Demetri McCamey (55.0%).

The starting guards for Illinois both have very well-defined roles: Chester Frazier distributes the ball and plays defense ala Travis Walton (5.9 assists but only 5.4 points per game) and Trent Meachem shoots the three (12.2 points/game, 47.6% 3pt%).  Davis and Tisdale are versatile big men who can play both away from and near the basket (11.9 and 11.4 points per game, respectively).

Demetri McCamey is the wildcard (12.3 points/game).  When everything’s going right, McCamey looks like an NBA lottery pick.  He has a wide body, smooth ball-handling skills, and a quick-release jumpshot that’s unstoppable when he’s hot.  When things aren’t going well, though, McCamey can become erratic and unreliable on offense; Bruce Weber actually pulled him down the stretch in their win against Purdue in favor of the must less gifted Calvin Brock.  Travis Walton will do everything he can to try to stop McCamey from getting on a roll.

Beyond that, I think the key to stopping Illinois on offense is forcing them to beat you one-on-one.  They rank first in the entire country in the percentage of their made field goals that are assisted (71.6%).  The switching and hedging on picks will need to be crisp to avoid letting Davis and Tisdale (who’s coming off a 24-point performance against Michigan) get free for open mid-range looks.  Beyond McCamey, none of the Illini players are going to create offense on their own.  The MSU defense has to be disciplined enough to try to force them into making moves they’re not comfortable making.

Defensively, Illinois does almost everything well: they create turnovers, force tough shots, and don’t foul a lot.  But they’re a mediocre defensive rebounding team, allowing their opponents to pull down 33.1% of missed field goals.  That should be a major advantage for MSU, given the way we’ve rebounded the ball in recent games.  Tisdale is a pretty good offensive rebounder, but he doesn’t rebound nearly as well on defense, forcing Mike Davis (7.5 rebounds/game) to do most of the work.  Expect Goran Suton or Delvon Roe, whichever player Bruce Weber assigns Tisdale to guard, to attack the glass very effecitvely on offense.

The match-up between Raymar Morgan and McCamey will be an interesting one.  Both would seem to have an advantage over the other on offense (Morgan’s height, McCamey’s quickness).

I expect this game to be a dogfight.  The Illini are disciplined and scrappy–and now they’re efficient offensively to boot.  Our Spartans will need to play with intensity and cohesiveness on both ends of the court for 40 minutes to earn their second conference home win.

Kenpom predicts a 67-65 MSU win in a 65-possession game.  The winner of this game becomes the de facto leader in the conference title race through five games.

Coffee Talk: In honor of Morris Peterson’s jersey retirement on Saturday (be sure to get to Breslin by 3:40), let’s hear people’s MoPete memories.  My top three plays, off the top of my head:

3. A monstrous dunk on the fast break over 7’0″ Ohio State center Ken Johnson.  Johnson was in danger of having his wrist broken on the rim.

2. The 3-pointer with a hand in his face (blocking his view of the basket, as far as I could tell from my seat directly behind the shot) to beat Indiana at home in 2000.

1. The alley-oop that turned the tide against Iowa State in the 2000 NCAA regional final.  (Of course.)

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Coffee Talk: Jumping-the-Gun-on-the-Big-Ten-Race Edition

You’ve probably all read by now that the last time MSU started a conference season 3-0 we not only won the Big Ten championship, we also went on to win the national championship.  It’s far too premature to talk about the latter, but let’s go ahead and talk about the former.

With Purdue’s loss in Happy Valley last night (sans Hummel and Kramer), the Big Ten race no longer looks like a two-team race.  Here are your updated Kenpom projections for the final Big Ten standings (current conference records in parentheses; ties broken based on current Kenpom ranking):

1. Michigan State: 13-5 (3-0)
2. Illinois: 12-6 (1-1)
3. Purdue: 11-7 (0-2)
4. Wisconsin: 10-8 (2-0)
5. Northwestern: 9-9 (0-2)
6. Ohio State: 9-9 (1-2)
7. Iowa: 9-9 (1-1)
8. Michigan: 8-10 (1-1)
9. Minnesota: 8-10 (1-1)
10. Penn State: 8-10 (2-1)
11. Indiana: 1-17 (0-1)

Depending on what you believe about Illinois and Northwestern, there are basically seven to nine teams bunched up in the middle of the conference from a statistical standpoint.  At 2-0, Wisconsin looks like the obvious team to give MSU a run for its money down the stretch, but it remains to be seen if the Badgers can manufacture enough scoring against teams that don’t play defense at a Wolverine-like level.  Sunday’s Wisconsin-Purdue game should tell us something about both teams (assuming Robbie Hummel can play, I suppose).

Coffee Talk: How excited does the start to conference play have you about MSU’s chances of ending the seven-year conference title drought?  What concerns you the most in terms of the Spartans maintaining their current level of efficiency down the stretch?  What team(s) do you see emerging from the pack to challenge us?

Chat amongst yourselves.

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Wrapping up the football season

Well, I certainly didn’t think we’d see a 6-3 score line at the half. That’s what six weeks of staring at the same statistics can do to you–make you think a particular outcome (Georgia scoring early and often, in this case) is mathematically certain.

In my defense, I did point out in the bowl preview that turnovers and penalties by the Bulldogs could give MSU an advantage.  And they did give us an edge in the first half; we were just unable to capitalize on the Georgia mistakes to build a more sizable lead.

I give great credit to the MSU defense.  Beyond forcing the two first-half turnovers, they held all three of Georgia’s big play threats in check in terms of their primary roles.  Knowshown Moreno rushed for just 68 yards on 23 carries, while the Bulldog starting wide receivers were held to one catch a piece (for 12 and 10 yards).

Ultimately, Matthew Stafford turned out to be just plain too good.  After struggling with accuracy in the first half, he threw three touchdowns in the second half.  All of them were NFL-level throws, and all were to secondary receivers (the most spectacular of them being thrown to Moreno).

On the other side of the ball, the MSU offensive line looked overmatched for much of the game.    At one point in the first half (after MSU got the ball on a fumble recovery), Georgia forced MSU into negative yardage outcomes on four of their next five plays.

Javon Ringer was held to 55 yards on 22 carries.  (It was nice to see him get a TD in his final game as a Spartan, though.)  And Georgia racked up six sacks.  Brian Hoyer was under pressure all game, and, when he did have to throw, he wasn’t terribly accurate.  The MSU receivers made some tough short catches, but could never get open for a big play downfield.

I was disappointed in the way Mark Dantonio handled the multiple opportunities to go for it on fourth down, given his track record of being aggressive in that department.  After the fake punt on the first drive failed (why not just go for it with your offense in that situation?), he seemed to overcompensate by not going for it when the situations arose again during the game.  MSU reached Georgia territory on all of its first five drives in the game, but came away with only six points.  By failing to generate more points in the first half, the second half became an uphill climb.

Anyway, it was good to see MSU compete for four quarters against a more talented opponent, given the implosions against Ohio State and Penn State.  I think this game gives the team some credibility going into next season and caps a successful season by any measure:

• Nine wins
• Road win over Michigan
• Third place finish in the conference
• New Year’s Day Bowl

All in what’s supposed to be the second year of a major rebuilding process.

Coffee Talk: Moving right along, what’s the over/under on wins for the Michigan State football team next season?

Negatives:

• A 9-3 regular season in which we won every close game would point to some regression toward the mean.
• Javon Ringer graduates, meaning the primary focus of the offense will have to shift.
• Otis Wiley graduates.  He was the key defensive player in generating positive turnover margin this season (another fabulous forced fumble today).

Positives:

• The schedule is favorable.  No second BCS-level nonconference opponent (although neither Central nor Western are pushovers).  No Ohio State.
• Brian Hoyer graduates, but the Keith Nichol era begins.  And Kirk Cousins will be a very good back-up for the next three years (assuming Nichol ends up beating him out for the starting job).
• Three of five offensive linemen return (all on the left side), along with basically the entire receiving corps.
• Eight of 11 starters return on defense, including Greg Jones and Trevor Anderson.  Plus Brett Swenson and Aaron Bates.
• A top-20 incoming recruiting class that includes nine 4-star players (two of them at running back).

Today’s result notwithstanding, it’s good to be a Spartan.  And it should be for some time to come.

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Coffee Talk: What's that? Another football game?

It’s now been 36 days since the Michigan State football team last played a game.  Since then:

• The MSU basketball team has played nine games.
• The Detroit Lions have played (and lost) six games.
• Barack Obama has announced 25 cabinet-level appointees and key advisors.
• Over two feet of snow has fallen and subsequently melted in the Lansing area.

This is one of the reasons I have a hard time becoming fanatical about college football.  A bowl game feels less like the continuation of a season and more like some sort of offseason barnstorming exhibition to me.

Anyway, the MSU football team does in fact play a pretty important football game on Thursday against the Bulldogs of Georgia (1:00, ABC).  I previously previewed the game, finding that a numbers-based perspective on the match-up is not terribly encouraging.  Of the four offensive/defensive units that will take the field on Thursday, only the Georgia offense stands out as New Year’s Day-quality statistically speaking.

Coffee Talk: What’s your gut prediction on the outcome of the bowl game?  Do the statistical indicators worry you?  Or do you think this MSU team will defy the numbers and find a way to finally beat (or at least compete with) a top-15 team this season?  If so, how do you see it playing out?

P.S. For what it’s worth, at least one Georgia blogger is sounding more and more confident as the game approaches.  And the Bulldogs have a pretty good track record of getting the better of Big Ten teams in bowl games.

<a href =”http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1229378/” >What’s your prediction for the outcome of the Capital One Bowl?</a> <br/> <span style=”font-size:9px;” mce_style=”font-size:9px;”> (<a href =”http://www.polldaddy.com”> surveys</a>)</span>

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Coffee Talk: Accentuate the Positive

Wednesday Night Links

• Game Time Changed For Men’s Basketball Big Ten Opener
  Tip-off on December 31 will be at noon, not 6:00, so Gopher fans can watch their football team.
• The Minnesota Athletic Department still knows how to screw over their fans
  From the Barn points out most Minnesota fans still can’t watch the football game, since it’s on the NFL Network.
• TEXAS POINT GUARD A WORK IN PROGRESS
  Jeff Goodman says the Longhorns are focusing on defense this year.
• Lethargic Badgers Need To Fight Fire With Fire
  Wisconsin looking very un-Wisconsinlike.
• Unverified Voracity Is Writing A Comparative Lit Thesis
  Just how good is Laval Lucas-Perry going to be in a Wolverine uniform?
• The fates make us wait
  “It feels like the Twilight Zone around Michigan parts, these days. Nobody wants to talk football, it’s all basketball now.”  (No kidding: Two UM blog basketball links tonight–and neither is from UMHoops.)
• Devendorf may be suspended by Syracuse
  One-time MSU commit’s college career may not be ending well.
• Suns get high-scoring Richardson from Cats
  Jason Richardson’s moving to Phoenix.
• Five Big Ten players nominated for Rudy Award
  Otis! Otis! Otis!

Coffee Talk

We haven’t had a full-fledged basketball Coffee Talk in a while–partly because I’m having a hard time coming up with interesting questions.  Try this one on:

With our recent discussions generally being of the “what’s going wrong?” nature, let’s focus on the positive for a day.  What MSU basketball player or trend has been most encouraging to you through the first seven games?

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Special Edition Saturday Coffee Talk

With no Spartan football to watch and discuss on a blustery November Saturday, here’s a basketball question to kick around:

Who do you hope to see in the starting lineup against the Vandals tomorrow evening?

Seven guys started at least one of the two exhibition games: Lucas, Walton, Allen, Summers, Morgan, Gray, Suton.  And Delvon Roe seems destined to start at some point.

Let’s hear your five picks to take the court to tip off the season.

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Preseason Musings (and Coffee Talk): Expectations

Wednesday Links

• Goran Suton’s knee is “a concern”; Lucas’s ankle should be good to go.
• Tom Izzo on the two new guys (video). Big men who “want to play.”
• Kalin Lucas is not a preseason Bob Cousy nominee. Outrage!  Trevon Hughes is the Big Ten’s representative.
• Big surprise: Wisconsin signs a big man who can shoot the 3 and a versatile combo guard.
• Bonus football link:Interesting fan post on Rivalry, Esq. looking back at MSU offensive skill players’ recruiting rankings. Still working mainly with 3-star guys.

The Expectations Game

I think it’s fair to say that, going into this season, expectations for MSU basketball are as high as they’ve been in half a dozen years.  And for good reason: The roster of players Izzo has to work with this year is as talented, versatile, and deep as any he’s had since the national championship season.  Here’s one way to look at it: Listed below is the player playing the 9th most minutes/game (and their class year) in each of the last 9 seasons:

• 1999-2000: David Thomas (RS junior)
• 2000-01: Adam Ballinger (RS sophomore)
• 2001-02: Tim Bograkos (RS freshman)
• 2002-03: Tim Bograkos (RS sophomore)
• 2003-04: Matt Trannon (freshman)
• 2004-05: Delco Rowley (RS sophomore)
• 2005-06: Drew Naymick (RS sophomore)
• 2006-07: Idong Ibok (RS sophomore)
• 2007-08: Durrell Summers (freshman)

At this point, I’d forecast Korie Lucious or Marquise Gray to be the 9th man in MSU’s playing rotation this season.  Both those players can reasonably be expected to contribute more on the court than any of the players on this list below David Thomas.

So the parts are all there.  The question is just how good a team they add up to.  More specifically, what’s a reasonable expectation for this team’s overall record?  Here’s my (admittedly unscientific) take:

• There are six nonconference games that should be comfortable wins (Idaho/IPFW/Bradley/Alcorn St/Citadel/Oakland).  That leaves six games against BCS-level competition (three in the Old Spice Classic).  With Delvon Roe slowly getting up to full speed and the team adjusting to a more up-tempo style, I think 9-3 would be a reasonable outcome.  If they made the Old Spice Classic final, lost to UNC, and split with Texas/Kansas, they’d hit that mark.
• In conference play, this team should be good enough to hold court against the entire league for a 9-0 home record.  Road games against Purdue and Ohio State lean toward losses.  Thankfully, we don’t play in Madison this season.  Toss in one more road loss against the middle of the league (Minnesota/Illinois/Penn State/Michigan) and you get a conference record of 15-3.
• MSU should be favored to at least make the Big Ten Tournament final.  Let’s say 2-1, given that the regular season conference forecast is on the optimistic side.
• A Sweet Sixteen appearance is be expected.  A Final Four appearance is certainly possible.  Split the difference and you’ve got a 3-1 record in the Big Dance.

Add all that up and you get to 29-8.  If they could achieve this scenario, I think we’d be pretty content.  The key, though, would be hitting that 15-3 Big Ten mark, which would presumably get us at least a share of the regular season conference title.  That seven-year conference title drought continues to weigh on the program.

At the same time, getting to a Final Four being held in our home state to keep Tom Izzo’s every-four-year-player-has-been-to-a-Final-Four streak alive would be happiness inducing, as well.

Coffee Talk: What’s the highest priority this season?  Winning the conference?  Or making the fifth Final Four appearance of the Izzo era?  (I’ve laid these choices with two stark scenarios out in a poll below.)  Are the expectations I’ve laid out above in terms of W-L record too high, too low, or juuuuust right?

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Coffee Talk: Back to Basketball

Must . . . not . . . get . . . emotionally . . . invested . . . in . . . MSU . . . football . . . team.

We’re now just 25 days from Midnight Madness (Friday, October 17; haven’t seen any details yet).  Let’s chat about how this basketball team will fit together.

We’ve talked about how depth appears to be a key to the success of Izzo-coached teams.  The 2008-09 team has the potential to utilize a deeper rotation than the teams of the last several years, with 13 scholarship players who could conceivably contribute in the right situation.  But those 13 players are pretty clearly divided into two groups–with seven guys who will almost certainly be major contributors and six guys whose roles aren’t very well defined.

Here are the seven players who, assuming they stay healthy, are very likely to play at least 20 minutes per game:

• Kalin Lucas
• Travis Walton
• Chris Allen
• Durrell Summers
• Raymar Morgan
• Delvon Roe
• Goran Suton

That’s a pretty versatile group, with five guys who can play the three perimeter spots and three guys that can play the two “big” spots.  Hopefully, though, the regular playing rotation will be at least eight players deep, if not nine or ten deep.

Here’s a rundown of the six candidates to fill those additional spots in the playing rotation (in alphabetical order):

Isaiah Dahlman: Given his lack of playing time last season, and the talk of a redshirt this year (which I now assume won’t be happening), it’s hard to see Dahlman getting major minutes.  But if Izzo intends to play a smaller lineup much of the time, they could need an extra wing player at some point.

Marquise Gray: As a fifth-year senior with loads of natural ability, Gray would be an obvious choice to get significant minutes.  But there are two major questions that continue to haunt him: Can he stay healthy?  And can he avoid the major mental lapses that led to his minutes getting severely reduced at the end of last season?

Draymond Green: I don’t know a ton about Green, but the loss of weight over the offseason reported by Eric Lacy yesterday indicates he could be a candidate to play a similar role to Morgan–using a combination of mid-range shooting and rebounding ability to shift between the 3 and 4 spots.

Tom Herzog: It’s hard to see Herzog getting major minutes on a consistent basis, particularly with Izzo’s statements about playing smaller and faster.  But Herzog has added weight over the offseason.  At some point, he may become a potential fill-in for Suton in the middle.

Idong Ibok: Ditto.  Except Ibok has probably developed as much as he’s going to as a college basketball player.

Korie Lucious: Having two experienced point guards in Lucas and Walton would, on first analysis, seem to preclude Lucious from playing a major role this year.  But (1) we know Izzo isn’t opposed to multiple point-guard line-ups (much to my chagrin at times) and (2) Lucious is reportedly a pure outside shooter, and this team may need more shooters on the floor in the absence of Drew Neitzel.

So here’s your Coffee Talk question: Who do you think becomes the #8 guy in the playing rotation?  How many players deep do you expect the playing rotation to go?  Vote and comment below.

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Coffee Talk: Special, Limited-Time Football Edition

This might make me sound like a bit of a fair weather fan, but I have a confession to make: A couple years ago, I basically decoupled myself emotionally from the Michigan State football team.

I still followed the team (although with nowhere near the obsessiveness I follow the basketball team), but I managed to put myself in a place where I no longer got too worked up either way after a big football game.  I couldn’t take any more of the agony of the team building up early-season expectations each year before proceeding to systematically crush our spirits with a series of terrible losses down the stretch.

With three days until MSU’s opener against Cal, though, I’m starting to feel a bit of that old sense that this might be the season Spartan football breaks out of its recent history of mediocrity.  I’m not sure if it’s the fact that the only football game I attended last year was the comeback win against Penn State, the general consensus that the Big Ten is ripe for the picking this year once you get past Ohio State, the sense that Mark Dantonio might finally be the guy to build the program the right way, or just the anticipation of a prime time opening game against a quality nonconference foe.  But I fear I’m getting sucked back into the expectations vortex.

Anyway, let’s the turn the tables here.  My guess is that many of you, if not most of you, are more well-informed college football fans than I am.  So tell me, Spartans Weblog faithful, what should my expectations for the Spartan football team be going into this season?

Are the pieces in place for a run at a New Year’s Day Bowl?  Or will the team build up my expectations again only to fall flat when it counts?  Or will our Spartans do something completely out of character and simply win the games they should win, lose the games they should lose, and make a second consecutive bowl appearance with 7 or 8 wins?

Let me have it.

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Coffee Talk: The MSU basketball recruiting outlook

As regular readers have no doubt deduced, I don’t know much about recruiting (sing this to the tune of “Don’t Know Much About History” by Herman’s Hermits).  Prior to the creation of this blog, I paid almost no attention to it.  I don’t subscribe to Rivals or Scout.  And I find the whole notion of following 16- and 17-year olds’ every AAU performance, public statement, and Facebook profile update fairly creepy.  (As opposed to having one’s emotional well-being riding on the athletic performances of 18- and 19-year old college students, which is a perfectly sane activity, right?).

I now, however, feel some obligation to know a little about what’s going on in terms of the Michigan State basketball recruiting scene.  Plus what else is there to talk about for seven months of offseason?

So I thought we’d do a little group project and see if, between the lot of us, we can piece together what the MSU’s recruiting strategy is (or should be) going forward.  Let’s review the situation:

• Looking at the projected roster, Izzo had up to four scholarship slots for 2009.  Two of those slots are taken by the verbal commitments of big men Garrick Sherman and Derrick Nix.
• If all four 2009 slots were used, there’d be two slots for 2010.  (I’m assuming Isaiah Dahlman is not going to do a mid-career redshirt.)  One of those slots is filled by the verbal commitment of guard Keith Appling.
• So, at the moment, there’s two slots remaining that could be used for either 2009 or 2010 and one additional slot for 2010.
• Per Joe Rexrode, the two guys on the radar for 2009 are 6-7 forward Jamil Wilson of Racine, Wis., and 6-6 forward Roger Franklin of Duncanville, Texas.
• And the top guys on the radar for 2010 are 6-3 guard Trey Zeigler of Mount Pleasant, 6-9 center Alex Gauna of Eaton Rapids, 6-8 forward Jon Horford of Grand Ledge and 6-7 shooting guard Russell Byrd of Fort Wayne, Ind.

Regarding the two 2009 candidates:

• Wilson has “narrowed” his list to seven schools: Duke, Kentucky, Marquette, Michigan State, Oregon, Purdue and Texas (alphabetical order; no Badgers, who appear to have used up all their scholarships).  He doesn’t plan to announce his choice until next March, to honor the anniversary of mother’s death.
• Sam Webb provides the low down on Franklin in today’s Detroit News.  Franklin is currently ranked the #49 propsect in the nation by Scout.com; his list of schools is Indiana, Arizona, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Michigan State (with MSU making a late push).  He appears to be a thoroughly Tom Izzo-sort of player:

“The first thing that sticks out about Roger Franklin is his consistency,” [Scout.com analyst Evan] Daniels said. “Night in and night out you know he is going to hit the glass, knock down mid-range jumpers, and play defense. He’s the ultimate glue guy. He’s expanded his game to the point where he can play on the wing full-time. He brings a lot of attributes to the table, but his biggest goal every time out is to get the victory. Every college program needs a tough, hard-nosed guy like him that will do whatever it takes to win.”

Coffee Talk Question(s): So, Spartans Weblog faithful, what happens to the three scholarship slots available over the next two years?  Would Izzo take both Wilson and Franklin–who both seem to be “tweeners” at the 3/4 spots?  Who should the priorities be for 2010?  What should be/is Izzo’s overall strategy?

I’m confident at least a few of you can offer more educated guesses than I can to these questions.

Back to the here and now (or at least the here and five months from now): Northwestern Wins (which is not, in fact, a Northwestern blog) gives us his predicted order of finish in the Big Ten.  He likes MSU to beat out Purdue for the conference championship and is (relatively) high on Michigan and Northwestern.

Regarding our presumed rivals for the Big Ten crown, the Boilermakers are currenly touring down under; Boiled Sports reports that E’Twaun Moore is putting up big numbers.

Having seen no recent news about the Candadian tour that MSU was planning to take over Labor Day at one point, I’m assuming that’s now dead.  Maybe the Roe/Lucious injuries made Izzo think this wasn’t the year to use up their touring privileges?

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