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Weekend Preview: Is this the weekend Michigan State takes control of B1G?

Keith Appling

The crowd reacts as Michigan State’s Keith Appling returns to the court after suffering a shoulder injury, late in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Minnesota, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, in East Lansing, Mich. Michigan State won 61-50. (AP Photo/Al Goldis)

AP

Is this the weekend Michigan State takes control of the Big Ten?: It seems like we make the mistake every season: we forget about the Spartans after a couple of losses to good teams in the non-conference portion of the schedule, only to watch as Tom Izzo leads his team on a courageous run through the Big Ten regular season before reestablishing his dominance in March. You think we would have learned by now.

But apparently we haven’t.

Because all anyone can talk about in the Big Ten is Michigan and Indiana, conveniently forgetting about the team that is currently tied with them at the top of the league standings. And if the Spartans ended up taking over sole possession of first place in the conference on Monday morning, no one should be surprised. Michigan is at Wisconsin on Saturday. Indiana is at Ohio State on Sunday. The Spartans can’t overlook a scrappy Purdue squad (7:00 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network), but how many people would have thought back in December that the Spartans could have control of the best conference in the country in February?

Is Kansas in trouble in the Big 12?: All of a sudden, the Big 12 race is wide-open. Thanks to back-to-back losses to Oklahoma State and TCU, the Jayhawks have lost their two-game advantage and have fallen back into a first-place tie with Kansas State. And not only are they coming off of their worst performance of the Bill Self era, they have to visit Oklahoma on Saturday (4:00 p.m. ET, ESPN) and follow that up with a visit from Kansas State on Big Monday.

All of a sudden, what looked like it could have simply been a two-game blip on the Kansas radar has become the potential for catastrophe for the Jayhawks. They’ve won at least a share of eight straight Big 12 regular season titles. I doubt anyone on the roster wants to have their name associated with the one Kansas team that broke that streak. Is that adding to the pressure that Kansas feels? Does that play a role in their lack of confidence on the offensive side of the ball? Who knows, but what’s clear is that a third straight loss would be a disaster for Kansas.

The season’s top two scorers square off: South Dakota State’s Nate Wolters went for 53 points on Thursday night in a come-from-behind win at IPFW. That’s the most points that any player has scored in a game this season. The previous high? Travis Bader of Oakland, who went for 47 in a win over IPFW. SDSU visits Oakland on Saturday afternoon (5:00 p.m. ET). That should be fun.

Does anyone want to be the second-best team in the SEC?: Have we really reached a point in the season where Kentucky is the second-best team in the SEC? Because, at this point, we can say with complete certainty that it’s not Missouri, who lost to Texas A&M on the road on Thursday night. The Tigers have no cohesiveness, can’t win on the road and lack leadership. But they also got smacked at home by an Ole Miss team that hanged their hat on the fact that they beat Missouri this year. For what it’s worth, Kentucky hosts Auburn on Saturday afternoon, meaning that the Rebels will likely have to win at Missouri on Saturday if they want to remain a game out of first place in the league.

Every Saturday is going to be insane in the Atlantic 10: But this seems more ridiculous that usual:


  • VCU at Charlotte (7:00 p.m. ET)
  • No. 14 Butler at George Washington (2:00 p.m. ET)
  • Temple at Dayton (11:00 a.m. ET, ESPNU)
  • St. Joe’s at UMass (2:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2)
  • St. Louis at Richmond (6:00 p.m. ET)

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.