FanPulse: Confidence plummets after back-to-back losses

It has not been a good week for the Michigan State Spartans basketball team and it’s showing in the fan base.

Coming off of a blowout win over Northwestern, MSU was in a position to go on a run that could create some separation in the Big Ten with a depleted Wisconsin team over the weekend and a home game against Penn State. Unfortunately, after back-to-back heartbreaking losses, the outlook appears to have changed dramatically.

Confidence in the team from the weekly SB Nation FanPulse dropped to a season-low 75 percent. That number could have been even lower, the survey went out Tuesday before the Penn State game, meaning some votes may have come in before the Penn State loss.

Before this week’s results, confidence never dipped lower than 90 percent. Even after the blowout home loss to Duke and the blowout loss to Purdue, confidence remained relatively steady.

However, as the Spartans face what is likely their most difficult scheduling stretch of the Big Ten calendar, fans are starting to show their concern.

Of course, this isn’t entirely out of the norm for Michigan State basketball. Last year at almost this exact same time the Spartans hit their roughest stretch of the season, losing three straight games. The team then proceeded to only lose two games for the rest of the season.

The next week and a half may decide if this was nothing more than a mid-season freakout by fans or a sign of things to come. The Spartans travel to Michigan Saturday morning before a Tuesday night road-game at Illinois and a Saturday night game against Maryland in East Lansing.

Winning even two of the next three could steady fans’ nerves. But for a fanbase that was reluctant to show concern over game-by-game results, this is a scary stretch for the season’s outlook.

In addition to sharing a level of confidence, Michigan State fans will be asked questions in the coming FanPulse poll regarding the football team and the coaching position.

Make sure to sign up before the weekend to share your point of view on what direction the football program should head and how you feel about Mark Dantonio’s departure.

If nothing else, it will be an extremely interesting couple of weeks on campus.