A win over Indiana on Sunday afternoon would go a long way toward the Spartans’ chances of earning a high seed in the Big Ten Tournament.
Michigan State pulled off an upset win on the road against top-10 Purdue earlier this week, and now they’re in a good position for a three-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament… as long as they can beat Indiana on Sunday. The Spartans will all but lock up the No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the Big Ten Tournament if they beat the Hoosiers on Sunday afternoon, according to Paul Feinson (aka Green and Doc White) of Spartans Illustrated.
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If the Spartans beat Indiana on Sunday, they will have a 46% chance of earning the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament and a 53% chance of earning the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament, according to Fanson’s algorithm for Big Ten Tournament seeding predictions. Of course, that will be affected by other results around the league, especially how Nebraska’s regular season ends.
The Spartans are now 23-5 overall and 13-4 in Big Ten play with three games remaining. MSU’s remaining games are against Indiana University (away), Rutgers (home) and Michigan (away). So a win over the Indians on Sunday would put MSU at 15-5 in conference play, projected to beat Rutgers and lose to MSU.
Fanson said things would become more complicated if MSU loses to Indiana on Sunday, with the Spartans appearing more likely to be a No. 4 or No. 5 seed in the Big Ten tournament. If they lose to the Indians, the Spartans still have a 60% chance of getting a third bye in the Big Ten Tournament.
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Landing as a No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the Big Ten Tournament certainly has a better chance of deep contention than a No. 4 or No. 5 seed. The obvious reason is that if both teams want to make it to the championship game, they’ll avoid the clear top team in the league — rival Michigan — until the title game.
The Spartans’ game at Indiana is scheduled for Sunday at 3:45 p.m. ET. The game will be televised nationally on CBS.
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This article originally appeared on Spartan Wire: Impact of Big Ten tournament seeding on Sunday’s Michigan State vs. Indiana game