Basketball Schedule Released and a Programming Note

Programming Note: The EMU preview will be up tomorrow. It won't be as intensive as the Cal one, but it'll give you something to mull while you defecate.

At long last, the basketball schedule was released for the Big Ten. Here's what MSU is facing:

November

Wed. 5 NORTHERN MICHIGAN (Exhibition) East Lansing, Mich. TBA
Mon. 10 LAKE SUPERIOR STATE (Exhibition) East Lansing, Mich. TBA
Sun. 16 IDAHO East Lansing, Mich. TBA
Wed. 19 at IPFW Fort Wayne, Ind. TBA
Thur.-Sun. 27-30 Old Spice Classic Orlando, Fla.
Thur. 27 vs. Maryland (ESPN2) Orlando, Fla. 7 p.m.
Fri. 28 vs. Gonzaga/Oklahoma State (ESPN/ESPNU) Orlando, Fla. 5:30/8 p.m.
Sun. 30 vs. Siena/Tennessee/Wichita State/Georgetown (ESPN2/ESPNU) Orlando, Fla. TBA

December

Wed. 3 vs. North Carolina# (Big Ten/ACC Challenge) (ESPN) Detroit, Mich. 9 p.m.
Sun 7 BRADLEY East Lansing, Mich. TBA
Sat. 13 ALCORN STATE East Lansing, Mich. TBA
Wed. 17 THE CITADEL East Lansing, Mich. TBA
Sat. 20 vs. Texas$ Houston, Texas TBA
Sat. 27 vs. Oakland^ Auburn Hills, Mich. TBA
Wed. 31 at Minnesota (Big Ten Network) Minneapolis, Minn. 6 p.m.

January

Sat. 3 at Northwestern (Big Ten Network) Evanston, Ill. 7 p.m.
Tues. 6 OHIO STATE (ESPN2) East Lansing, Mich. 7 p.m.
Sat. 10 KANSAS East Lansing, Mich. TBA
Wed. 14 at Penn State (Big Ten Network) State College, Pa. 6:30 p.m.
Sat. 17 ILLINOIS (ESPN) East Lansing, Mich. 4 p.m.
Wed. 21 NORTHWESTERN (Big Ten Network) East Lansing, Mich. 6:30 p.m.
Sun. 25 at Ohio State (CBS) Columbus, Ohio 3:45 p.m.
Thur. 29 at Iowa (ESPN/ESPN2) Iowa City, Iowa 7 p.m.

February

Sun. 1 PENN STATE (Big Ten Network) East Lansing, Mich. 12 p.m.
Wed. 4 MINNESOTA (Big Ten Network) East Lansing, Mich. 8:30 p.m.
Sat. 7 INDIANA (ESPN) East Lansing, Mich. 4 p.m.
Tues. 10 at Michigan (ESPN) Ann Arbor, Mich. 7 p.m.
Tues. 17 at Purdue (ESPN) West Lafayette, Ind. 7 p.m.
Sun. 22 WISCONSIN (CBS, ESPN, Big Ten Network) East Lansing, Mich. TBA
Wed. 25 IOWA (Big Ten Network) East Lansing, Mich. 8:30 p.m.
Sat.-Sun. 28-1 at Illinois (CBS, ESPN, Big Ten Network) Champaign, Ill. TBA

March

T/W/T 3/4/5 at Indiana (ESPN, ESPN2, Big Ten Network) Bloomington, Ind. TBA
Sat.-Sun. 7/8 PURDUE (CBS, ESPN, Big Ten Network) East Lansing, Mich. TBA

My thoughts:

• MSU's Winter break goes four weeks instead of the usual three this year. What does that mean? It means that the Izzone definitely won't be there for a good Ohio State team and might not be there for defending NCAA champ Kansas. Whoops.
• The Big Ten season starts off again with two road games: A rapidly improving Minnesota and a continually-chained-in-the-basement-like-a-mutant-stepchild Northwestern. This isn't horrible, the Big Ten has surely treated the Spartans worse in the past.
• The two opponents that are faced once? At Michigan, and Wisconsin at home. This is definitely nicer than last year, when it was the other way around.
• The biggest tests close out the schedule, as the three most likely biggest games are in the last six: at Purdue, Wisconsin at home, and in what could be a de facto Big Ten Championship game, Purdue at home to close out the season.

All in all, I'm happy with the schedule this year. The toughest teams aren't back-to-back, and the Big Ten schedule difficulty level is decent in the beginning before getting to the real meat at the end.