Drew Neitzel has finally found his shot; and that is a very good thing. Over the last four games, Neitzel has averaged 19 points per contest, and not surprisingly, the Spartans have been rolling. The Spartans have proved throughout the year that they can be a very good team without Neitzel scoring a whole lot. But for them to be a true title contender, they need Drew to be an offensive weapon like he was all of last season. As Big Ten play begins to tune up I have no doubt he will continue to find his shot and knock it down. With this whole team running at full strength i see no reason why they won't win the Big Ten season title and grab a 2 seed in the tournament at the very least. I keep hearing about how good Indiana is, but they've lost to the only two teams on their schedule that are in the top 50 (UConn and Xavier). I guess we will find out a lot about them this week when they head to Madison to take on the Badgers. As for the actual game on Sunday, I was pretty impressed. After a brief lapse early in the first half, the Spartans took over and were able to cruise to a fairly easy win. It was pretty obvious that Michigan just doesn't have the talent right now to seriously compete in the Big Ten. The Spartans' offense looked crisp and they ran the floor and got easy baskets. The defense looked as good as it has all season. The only thing I'm really concerned with right now (and have been all season) is turnovers. This is especially true when Neitzel and Travis Walton are out of the game because it puts the ball in the hands of freshman Kalin Lucas. Lucas is a great player and he will only get better and more poised down the stretch so I hope this is only a temporary issue.
Up next are the 2-6 Illini at the Breslin Center on Wednesday. I expect another fairly easy win as we continue to roll through the easiest part of the conference schedule. Also of note, if MSU wins, they will be 19-2 for the first time in program history. That's pretty impressive.
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