Michigan State had covered five straight spreads until losing their last game 88-74 at Northwestern. Tom Izzo will not be happy allowing 88 points. The Spartans had a streak of 7 straight unders earlier this year but are currently on a seven game over streak. I'm going against the trends here because of the importance of this conference game.

The odd tale of Illini top scorer Terrence Shannon, Jr. has taken an added twist this week, as Shannon has filed a restraining order against the Fighting Illini, demanding his immediate reinstatement. (How many players do you recall bringing suit against their own team, and school?) The oddity of the situation in Champaign-Urbana is that Illinois has continued to perform strongly minus Shannon, stretching its pointspread streak to 8-0-2 across the past ten games after rallying to inside the spread last Friday at top-ranked Purdue. At about the same time Shannon went on the shelf, Southern Illinois transfer F Marcus Domask began to heat up and pumped in a combined 58 points across the past two games vs. Northwestern and the Boilermakers. Play Illinois