FanHouse DrewNeitzel

Conference: Big Ten
Record: 25-8, 13-7 in conference
RPI: 14
How They Got In: At-Large
Seed/Bracket: 5/South

Mascot: Spartans. Sparty has been named "Buffest Mascot" by Muscle and Fitness and is a three-time national champion mascot.

Big Wins: BYU, Texas, Indiana

Notable Losses: Penn State and Iowa, two of the worst teams in the Big Ten, both beat Michigan State.

Player You Should Know: Senior guard Drew Neitzel is by far Michigan State's best player. He's a good passer, a good outside shooter and the unquestioned team leader. If the Spartans make a run in March, Neitzel will be the biggest reason.

Outlook: Six weeks ago, the Spartans looked like a team with a shot at the Final Four. But they haven't played well down the stretch, going 6-6 in the last 12 after starting the season 19-2. Michigan State is good enough to win a couple of Tournament games, but no more than a couple.

Michigan State beat Ohio State today in the Big Ten Tournament, allowing the Spartans to move on and perhaps bursting the Buckeyes' bubble.

And since Ohio State might have needed a win to get into the Tournament and Michigan State didn't, an intriguing storyline emerged: Might the Big Ten referees working the game favor the Buckeyes, on the theory that an Ohio State win would likely put them in the NCAA Tournament and give the Big Ten five teams in the Big Dance instead of four? Joe Sheehan wrote at Basketball Prospectus:

It should be interesting to see how this one is called. Fair or no, it's clear that the Big 11 has a lot invested in the outcome of that game.

It was a plausible idea, but I think the above clip should put that conspiracy theory to bed. The clip shows a Big Ten referee giving Ohio State's Othello Hunter a questionable foul, followed by an even more questionable technical. Almost every questionable call in this game went against Ohio State.

Still, give credit to Michigan State for winning it. Drew Neitzel had an outstanding game, scoring 28 points, and the Spartans are back on track after looking shaky a couple of weeks ago.

The Michigan State Spartans will be taking on San Jose State tonight in East Lansing, and senior point guard Drew Neitzel is hoping he can use tonight to break out of the "slump" he's been in this season.

Even though Neitzel's shooting percentage is up this season from 42.6% to 43%, and his three-point shooting is up from 41.2% to 44.1%, Drew's seen his scoring drop from 18 points a game last season to 14 this season. So in Drew's eyes, there's only one way to fix the problem. Stick around after practice everyday and take an extra 600-700 jump shots.

"Every shooter goes through some kind of a slump and I've just gotten back to what I've done my whole life and that's just spend hours in the gym shooting," Netizel said. "There wasn't a whole lot wrong with my shot.

"Sometimes they just don't go in but I'm starting to turn the corner now."

Neitzel found that he had been leaning a bit during his shot, but he's straightened his form out now, and the shots seem to be falling more often. Still, according to Tom Izzo it may not be Neitzel's form as much as it is Drew just isn't taking enough shots.

Michigan State has avoided the fate of much of their brethren in the Big 10. Ignoring their exhibition loss to Grand Valley State, as the NCAA does, the Spartans have avoided a loss to a mid-major this season. They remained unblemished by the skin of their teeth in Peoria last night thanks to a late rally past Bradley 66-61.

Drew Neitzel shot terribly for the entire game, 4-of-16, but buried a three with just under five minutes to play to spur a 7-0 run that put an end to the Braves' upset bid. The Spartans trailed by as many as nine but were able to keep Bradley in range because of a 47-28 rebounding edge and a strong defensive effort. Bradley's senior backcourt of Daniel Ruffin and Jeremy Crouch combined for 30 points but hit only 6-of-17 from three and couldn't get a shot to fall down the stretch to stop the bleeding and the Spartans.

Still, the Braves showed enough to keep them among the contenders in the Missouri Valley. Their defense wasn't any worse than MSU's, they had nine steals, and that backcourt is very good. Ruffin is the active NCAA assist leader while Crouch is normally a sharpshooter from deep. He hit 50% of his tries last season. They've won at Iowa and Iowa State this season and if they find a player or two to supplement the guards will be in good shape for a third-straight 20-win season.

Going into this college basketball season, there's been a general consensus that the Big Ten Conference will finish up with Michigan State, Indiana, and Ohio State somewhere in the top three. I'm not questioning this thought process or anything, because it's one I whole heartedly subscribe to.

After watching Illinois handle Arizona State in Maui late Monday night though, I think we'd all be pretty foolish to write off the Illini in the Big Ten this season.

Granted, the Sun Devils went 8-22 last season, and this was their first game of the season, but the Illini were very impressive in their 77-54 victory. What I was most impressed with were the Illini newcomers. Ever since Eric Gordon left the Illini at the altar for Indiana, Bruce Weber has taken a lot of heat for his recruiting, but after last night I'm not so sure it's deserved.

Demetri McCamey and Jeff Jordan didn't take the game over, but both should provide solid depth for the Illini in the backcourt this season. The guys who really got my attention though were big men Mike Tisdale and Bill Cole. Both showed a lot of polish for freshmen, and if they move into the weight room, Illinois is going to have a formidable frontcourt for years to come.

You add those guys with a solid upper class that features Shaun Pruitt and Brian Randle (who if he could somehow manage to stay healthy would compete with D.J. White and Drew Neitzel for Big Ten player of the year honors) and you get a team that isn't going to make it easy on Indiana or Michigan State.

There are chinks in the armor though, because much like last year, this team still isn't very impressive at the free throw line. It was their achilles heel last season, and it's probably going to be the thing that keeps Illinois from overtaking the conference's big three.