Busting Brackets
Fansided

Bracketology 2023: 5 games to help sort out Big Ten Basketball this week

By Jason Burgess

Jan 11, 2019; Madison, WI, USA; The Big Ten logo on the floor at the Kohl Center before the game between the Wisconsin Badgers and the Purdue Boilermakers. Mandatory Credit: Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 11, 2019; Madison, WI, USA; The Big Ten logo on the floor at the Kohl Center before the game between the Wisconsin Badgers and the Purdue Boilermakers. Mandatory Credit: Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next
Big Ten Basketball Purdue Boilermakers Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports
Big Ten Basketball Purdue Boilermakers Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports /

No. 3 Purdue at Michigan State

East Lansing, MI, Monday, January 16, 2:30 PM ET, Fox

Purdue is the team in the Big Ten that has set itself apart from everyone else right now. The question is what about the teams behind them? Michigan State has a chance to make a statement on Monday night when they host those Boilermakers.

Since losing to Alabama at the Phil Knight Invitational, the Spartans have gone 9-3 and enter this game with Purdue trying to keep pace with the Boilermakers after splitting games with Wisconsin and Illinois last week. The Spartans’ resume is a decent one because of the brutal November Tom Izzo scheduled, or at least it looked that way two months ago. The wins over Kentucky and Oregon are not aging well, which means before last week the Spartans’ best win is over Penn State who ranks 53rd in the NET.

Purdue is looking to stay in the conversation for a No. 1 seed and they look all the bit of a top seed at 16-1 after knocking off Nebraska in their only game last week. The Boilermakers continue to rack up the wins and are one point away from being the only undefeated team in the country and every in-league quad-one victory they can grab inches them closer to the top overall seed.

This is a game the Spartans have more need to win because coming into this week they are just 4-4 over the first two quads and their highest metric ranking is 26th on SOR after their game with Illinois.

Home/Big Ten