The Big Ten is still an extremely competitive conference as we near the end of February. No team has run away with the league, and about eight teams still have a shot at the regular season title. Two of those teams are the Michigan State Spartans and the Wisconsin Badgers, and they will face off Thursday night. Both teams come into this game playing really good basketball.
The Spartans enter the game at 21-5 (8-5) and ranked eighth in the nation, while Wisconsin comes in at 16-9 (8-4) and unranked. The Badgers are in fourth place in the Big Ten just two games back of Iowa and Indiana for first place, while Michigan State is in eighth place, but they are just 2.5 games out of first.
Michigan State has won five of their last six games following a three-game losing streak. Among those wins was a victory over Maryland and a blowout over Indiana on Sunday. The lone loss in that time was a close road loss at Purdue. Michigan State looks primed and ready for March, which is when Tom Izzo typically gets his team into top form.
The Spartans are led by senior guard Denzel Valentine, who is working his way back into the National Player of the Year conversation. Valentine was the frontrunner at the beginning of the year, but he got hurt and lost some ground. On the season he is averaging 19.5 points, 7.7 rebound and 7.1 assists per game, which are worthy numbers. Recently, Valentine has picked up his game as he is coming off back-to-back double-doubles where he scored 27 points and 30 points respectively.
While Valentine has been the star for Michigan State, forward Matt Costello has picked up his play lately, as well. The senior leads the team with his 8.3 rebounds per game and has added 10.3 points in just 22.6 minutes per game. Costello is coming off his best game of the season in Sunday's win over Indiana when he scored a season-high 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
While Michigan State comes in playing great, there may be nobody hotter in the Big Ten than Wisconsin. The Badgers were left for dead earlier in the season, especially when Bo Ryan retired and left the job for Greg Gard, but they have recovered in a big way. The Badgers have won seven straight games, including three wins over ranked opponents in that time frame, and actually look like a tournament team.
The Badgers turnaround has coincided with junior forward Nigel Hayes becoming more consistent. Hayes leads the team with his 17.1 points per game, and although he is shooting just 40 percent from the field, that has gone up recently. Hayes has scored in double figures in all but one Big Ten game and will look to continue that against the Spartans.
Hayes has been great lately, but he wasn't at his best in Wisconsin's huge upset win over, then number two, Maryland. Junior forward Vito Brown was the star of that game, as he scored a game-high 21 points and added seven rebounds. Brown is only averaging 9.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game this season but he has picked up his play recently culminating in the season-high 21 points on Saturday. Brown will go for his fourth straight double figure scoring game Thursday night.
These two teams met up earlier in the season at the Kohl Center, a game Wisconsin squeezed out by one point. Overall the Badgers have won three in a row against Michigan State, but this one will be in East Lansing and they are underdogs.
The game is scheduled to tip off at 9 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN, and to watch the live broadcast, go here. For the Michigan State radio broadcast, go here, and for the Wisconsin radio broadcast, go here.
