Big Ten Basketball Power Rankings: Purdue and Wisconsin pushing up

By Adam Childs | Feb 5, 2019

COLUMBUS, OH - JANUARY 23: Carsen Edwards #3 of the Purdue Boilermakers attempts to drive around Luther Muhammad #1 of the Ohio State Buckeyes in the second half on January 23, 2019 at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Purdue defeated Ohio State 79-67. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images) /

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EAST LANSING, MI – FEBRUARY 02: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans during a game against the Indiana Hoosiers in the second half at Breslin Center on February 2, 2019 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /

Two games ago, Michigan State was sitting alone on top of the Big Ten and had a 13 game winning streak and looked like a number one national seed. Fast forward a week and the Spartans lost both of those games including a shocking overtime loss to Indiana in overtime. This was the same Indiana team that had lost seven in a row including a loss to Rutgers.

Related Story. Comparing Michigan State to last year's squad. light

The Purdue loss was forgivable as they were on the road and the Boilermakers are one of the hottest teams in the conference. But the loss to Indiana hurts. The Hoosiers were playing about as bad as anybody not named Penn State in the Big Ten and they lost their second-leading scorer in Juwan Morgan after just 13 minutes. It is by far the Spartans worst loss of the year and drops them below Purdue in the rankings.

Michigan State is still a very good team and has all the talent to make a run in the NCAA tournament, but this loss has to raise some doubts. Either way, the Spartans need to get back on track against Illinois and Minnesota before they travel to Wisconsin for what should be a great game. It’s definitely not panic time in East Lansing, but if they lose to Illinois or Minnesota they might start to sweat.

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