Dr. Green and White Sports Authority

I will tell you what: it is a great day to be a Spartan fan in SE Michigan. Yesterday's win over the Wolverines was perhaps the most satisfying win in the last several years. Last year's two losses and early tournament exit, coupled with yet another luck-fueled Final Four run for the Wolverines, coupled with essentially a lost season of football due to injuries had left most of us with more than just a bad taste in our mouths. But that all went away around 6 PM last night. It was if the skies parted, the sun came out, and the world suddenly became a kinder and more beautiful place. Enjoy this one. Perhaps more importantly, yesterday's win helped to give the Big Ten college basketball world a nice strong dose of reality. (At least for now) we no longer need to hear the stupid rhetoric about how Beilein owns Izzo or how the Michigan program has somehow passed MSU.  Please. The reality of the situation is that Michigan is simply no longer a joke of a program. Actually, i...

It wasn't pretty last night, but the key thing is that MSU got the W and didn't completely crap the bed in the Big 10 race. On Tuesday night, Purdue managed to win at Indiana, and as such they have drawn near even with MSU. The updated win matrix (as always derived from Kenpom efficiency data) is shown below: As the table shows, MSU now holds only a very slight lead over the Boilers in expected wins, and MSU actually has one less game left to play. So, if Purdue can win at Nebraska this weekend, they will almost certainly pass MSU. Also, it is notable that for NCAA tournament purposes, it looks to me like it is going to be 8 teams only. The Top 6 look very safe right now and I would guess that Ohio State and Minnesota are going to sneak in as well. Illinois is making an interesting late charge, but their non-conference performance was just miserable, so they are much more behind they 8-ball on that one. As for the Top of the Big Ten, the expected win trends are shown below: As ...