Who will Michigan State basketball play in the Big Ten Tournament?

Michigan State opens against Minnesota

Michigan State earned a first round bye and the 8-seed in the Big Ten Tournament. The Spartans will play 9-seed Minnesota in the second round on Thursday at noon in Minneapolis. Yes, you read that correctly, MSU will play the hometown team in their first game. Great.

MSU and Minnesota have played twice this year, with both teams winning at home. The first meeting saw the Spartans win in East Lansing 76-66. The return game at Minnesota later in the season saw the Gophers get the narrow 59-56 victory. I think it’s safe to say that this will be yet another close game on Thursday.

MSU’s likely path to the championship game

The winner of Michigan State’s opening game will get a date on Friday with 1-seed Purdue in the quarterfinals. That is obviously a scary matchup, but I think the Spartans would stand a decent chance. They only lost by six at Purdue in their only meeting, so I think the Spartans could pull off the upset on a neutral court.

After that, we don’t know who MSU would play next. Four-seed Northwestern is the most likely opponent for the Spartans in the semifinals, but I could see two other teams making a run. Five-seed Wisconsin has been struggling but they could turn it on and make it to the semifinals as well. But a dark horse in that section of the bracket is 12-seed Maryland. They’d have to win three games just to get to the semifinals, but I think the Terps could beat the Rutgers, Wisconsin, and Northwestern to get there.

Finally would be the championship game, and your guess is as good as mine as to who MSU would play there. Two-seed Illinois will probably make it from that half of the bracket, but anything is possible in March.

The most important thing for Michigan State basketball is obviously the first game. The Spartans may still need to do some work to get into the NCAA Tournament, and a win against Minnesota would erase any lingering thoughts of being left out.