Dr. Green and White Sports Authority

With only four games left in the regular season, the Big Ten race is in the home stretch for the Michigan State Spartans. The calendar says that March is less than a week away, and MSU still has a lot to play for. Followingly a humbling loss to the Wisconsin Badgers, the Spartans reeled off two straight wins over the UCLA Bruins and the Ohio State Buckeyes. Table 1 below shows the updated Big Ten enhanced standings as of the morning of Feb. 25/ Table 1 : Enhanced Big Ten standing as of Feb. 25. The Spartans were not the only members of the Big Ten's upper echelon to take a loss over the past week or so. The Purdue Boilermakers lost at home to the Michigan Wolverines. The Nebraska Corn Huskers dropped a game at Iowa, and Illinois Fighting Illini blew a 23-point lead and lost to UCLA in overtime. As a result, MSU is currently in a four-way tie in the loss column for second place. Michigan has a commanding three-game lead in the standings. The Wolverines officially clinched at least a...

After a quiet summer and fall, dark clouds are once again forming near the horizon of the college basketball world. Certain perceived power brokers are once again discussing the possibility to expand the NCAA basketball tournament. I have made my opinions on this matter crystal clear: it is an objectively terrible idea. Any person in a decision-making role who advocates for such expansion should be publicly and repeated ridiculed until forced out of the sport.  I have written previously about the many reasons why expansion is such a bad idea. Briefly, there is no evidence to support the idea that the current format does not allow in enough worthy teams. Instead, expansion will almost exclusively benefit unworthy, mediocre high-major teams at the expense of mid- and low-major teams.  Expansion also will disrupt the current schedule and popular activities such as office pools. This very likely will impact fans enjoyment of the tournament. To this end, in a world where people can...

There are a few things about the 2025-26 Michigan State Spartans basketball team that have become clearer over the past few weeks and in particular after Friday the 13th's dismal performance in Madison against the Wisconsin Badgers. One odd observation it how opposite this season feels compared to last season. Last year's team started slow and gained momentum as the season went on. This year's team started strong and now stuck in the mud. Last year's team struggled during the trip to the west coast. This year's team honestly has only played well on the road at Washington and at Oregon. Last year's team put the Michigan Wolverines in their place with double-digit wins in both meetings. This year's team allowed the skunk bears to win at Breslin for just the fourth time in over 30 years. Both teams lost three of four games in the late January and early February "Tom Izzo Bermuda Triangle" part of the schedule. Last year's team rallied to win the...

The Big Ten race is always a rollercoaster, but the past week has been a more volatile ride than usual. Last Saturday, the Michigan State Spartans got a much needed win over No. 5 Illinois in overtime at the Breslin Center. After three straight games of subpar performance, the version of the Spartans which can make a serious post-season run finally reemerged. Some would argue that MSU broke out of the typical mid-season slump know in some circles as the Tom Izzo Bermuda Triangle. But East Lansing was not the only locale that was gripped by drama this week. On Tuesday night, Purdue went into to Lincoln, Neb. and scored an upset win over the Corn Huskers. Later in the evening, the Wisconsin Badgers managed to to hand the Fighting Illini their second straight overtime loss, this time in the friendly confines of State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill.  On Wednesday night, Michigan trailed by as many as 16 points in the second half at Northwestern. It looked for a while like the upset bug ...

Prior to the overtime thriller over the Illinois on Saturday night, the Spartans had lost two game in a row and had not played well for three straight games. To fans, it feels like Michigan State does this almost every year. It is the very nature of college basketball that good teams sometimes take bad losses, such as a road loss at Minnesota. It happens. But, it is the  timing  of the skid that feels so familiar. Several years ago in some the corners of MSU Spartans sports internet, someone pointed out that Michigan State's winning percentage frequently took a noticeable dip in late January and early February. This was time of year was christened as the "Tom Izzo Bermuda Triangle." I decided to also dig into this phenomena from a few different angles. I have a good database of MSU game result and spread data back to the 2006 season. I decided to study this effect using three factors: raw win percentage, performance against the spread, and performance relative to the Vega...