I just was bored at work and poking around the MSU basketball schedule and I noticed that we have about 7 days to prepare for Iowa at home (which is one reason I believe we will stop the Iowa resurgence train from moving forward) and then I got to wondering: how many of our Big 10 foes have a really long time to prepare for us...

Well I conducted a very quick and non-comprehensive search (ie going to each of the Big 10 team's schedules and looking at when they play us) and I believe that the most any team has to prepare for us is Wisconsin--I think they have 6 days-- where as every other Big 10 game coming up our opponent will have between 2 and 4 days to prep with our prep time being roughly the same... I think that that bodes well. I have no specifics but I am pretty sure that in the past we have gotten smacked by people who have had a while to prep for us (ie they had a "bye" or just 2-3 more days to prep than we did), and I think that the general lack of those kinds of games will really help out. I don't have any real theory or background on this, but I think it is usually the case where teams will have 1-2 games where they will be playing a "bye" team who has had 2-3 more days of prep than they have... I am just guessing that our seemingly curious lack of those games (as even in our home tilt with Wisconsin, while they have 6 days we have 5--so not a huge disparity) will really help us, especially given our serious quality depth, growing comfort offensively, and the likely emergence of some of our younger guys (payne, byrd, gauna, kearney, trice, dawson).

I am going to go ahead and say that the winner of the Big 10 season will probably have 3 losses (maybe 4 although I would be mildly shocked by that), which is a number I think we can reasonably aim for.

I also just want to give props to Nix, who is just playing beyond his stats--so proud of that man. As many have said the work he and Payne are doing in terms of fighting for position, playing defense with their mouths, feet, and chests, as opposed to with their hands has just made me so proud... that is really the difference this year (given the loss of Delvon--goodness do I love him still and always will). Keep it up boys, and keep closing down those 3-point shooters!