Big Ten Basketball: Indiana tumbles, Rutgers storms up in latest power rankings

The Spartans were ranked as high as No. 10 in the AP poll but including the loss to Northwestern a month ago, have gone 4-6 in the last 10 games. That includes a recent 1-4 stretch, coming off of losses to both Penn State and Illinois.

A big part of Michigan State’s struggles has been the lack of any consistent offense, especially from who was supposed to be its star player in Gabe Brown. He scored in double figures in 16 of the first 17 games of the season but only in two of the past nine. And outside of a 20-point effort in a loss to Rutgers, Brown has averaged just four points in the last four games as of late.

The Spartans are hoping that Tyson Walker can fill up the scoring void left by Brown. Although it came in a loss to Illinois this past weekend, the Northeastern point guard transfer had a season-high 26 points, including 22 in the second half to keep the team in the game. He’s averaging 8.0 ppg on the season and has been very inconsistent but if Brown’s role is starting to decrease and Joey Hauser likely going to be nothing more than a role play, Walker will have to start shooting more.

With games coming up against Iowa, Purdue, Michigan, and Ohio State, this is not the time to have an identity crisis on offense. Michigan State’s resume is good enough to be safely in but if they continue to lose games, they’ll be in the 8-9 seed range and risk another exit before the Sweet 16.