Dr. Green and White Sports Authority

Friday night in East Lansing was not the kind of evening that Spartans fans were hoping for.  Michigan State came out of the gate surprisingly tight while the visiting Wolverines were surprisingly poised. A bizarre sequence in the final minutes of the first half was triggered by a controversial hook-and-hold call on Cam Ward. This call catalyzed an 8-0 Michigan run that put the Spartans in an 18-point hole in the blink of an eye. MSU managed to storm back in the second half and even briefly take the lead, but the damage done in the first half was too much to over come. The Spartans clearly ran out of gas in final five minutes as the Wolverines secured a double-digit victory at the Breslin Center. Broadly, a look at the stats sheet shows that the two teams were even in a remarkable number of areas. Turnovers, rebounds, free throws, and even two-point shooting all essentially cancelled out.  But the one area where Michigan carved out an significant advantage was three point shoo...

Every night in the Big Ten has the potential for chaos, but Tuesday night's the action was particularly drama-filled.  In Piscataway, New Jersey, the Michigan State Spartans trailed by as many as 12 points multiple time in the second half but rallied to tie the game with under 20 seconds to play to force overtime. In Ann Arbor, the Michigan Wolverines trialed a short-handed Nebraska squad by as many as 11 points before taking the lead in the final seconds. Depending on which set of data one believes (ESPN or Kenpom), the Spartans had only a 10-15% chance to get the win over Rutgers in the final minutes of the games. Michigan had between a 20-30% chance to win late in the second half. But both the Spartans and Wolverine escaped Tuesday evening with a win. Purdue was not so lucky in Bloomington as the Boilermakers lost to rivals Indiana by five points.  Table 1 below gives the updated enhanced Big Ten standings through Wednesday night's conference action Table 1 : Enhanced Big T...

It was a very eventful week of Big Ten basketball. The Michigan State Spartans were able to complete the west coast swing with a sweep of Washington and Oregon. On Saturday, MSU shook off any hint of jetlag and demolished the Maryland Terrapins at the Breslin Center. Elsewhere in the Big Ten, Nebraska, Michigan, and Illinois all picked up two additional wins. But it was a tough week for Purdue. The Boilermakers lost in the final minute at UCLA and then were upset at home on Saturday by the Fighting Illini. As a result, Table 1 below gives the updated Big Ten enhanced standings through Saturday, Jan. 24. Table 1 : Enhanced Big Ten standings through Jan. 24, 2026. The Cornhuskers sit alone at the top of the standings with a perfect 9-0 record, an impressive road win/home loss score of +5, and a strength of resume of +4.46 wins better than expected for an average power four team playing the Huskers' conference schedule to date. Michigan State, Illinois, and Michigan are tied for secon...

Saturday night the Michigan State Spartans did something that no other Tom Izzo coached team has ever done. MSU won a regular season conference game in the pacific time zone in the 80-63 win at Washington. OK, so maybe the win was not that big of a deal. The road game at Washington ranks as just the ninth toughest game on the conference schedule. But considering two of the Spartans three conference losses last year came in the city of Los Angeles, getting the west coast road win was a hurdle that needed to be cleared. With the win over the Huskies, the Spartans move to 6-1 in conference play. Let's dig into the data to see where MSU stands and how the Big Ten race is likely to play out. Table 1 below shows the updated enhanced Big Ten standings as of Monday, Jan. 19. Table 1: Enhanced Big Ten standings as of Jan. 19, 2026 Purdue and Nebraska are at the top of the standings with perfect 7-0 records. The Cornhuskers currently have an edge in strength of conference resume (+3.64) over...

Throughout the Big Ten basketball season. I have historically conducted an analysis on the results of a series simulations which provides various odds regarding the trajectory of the Michigan State men's basketball season and the Big Ten race as a whole.  In addition, I have provided additional analysis of Michigan State and the Big Ten race using Kenpom efficiency data compared to historical data and the set of statistics known as the "four factors of basketball success." As the season goes on, the data change almost daily. This post is meant to be a one-stop shop for the most updated data on the Big Ten race. In addition, this post will contain a explanation of how to read each table or figure. Analysis of the data will be done elsewhere. This post contains "just the facts." Last Update: Jan. 15, 2026 Percentage of Big Ten games completed: 54 of 180 games (30%) Enhanced Big Ten Standings Table 1 below is what I refer to as the enhanced Big Ten standings. It i...