Agony and ecstasy

Good morning! It was quite the night to be in East Lansing, Provo and Fort Worth.

Why? Let’s dive in.

1. Michigan State sure had fun beating Purdue

Michigan State and Purdue are trending in different directions.

The No. 14 Spartans defended home court on Tuesday night with an impressive 75-66 home win. The big question entering the game was whether Michigan State could contain Purdue’s interior scoring. Remember, Wisconsin missed only two shots inside the arc on Saturday.

No sweat.

The Spartans had no problems solving No. 13 Purdue's defense, scoring 1.293 points per possession, and making 68.6% of their twos. They also took care of the ball with just 8 turnovers.

They put highlight reel-worthy plays together, too. The Spartans were nearly flawless on shots at the rim, connecting on 10-of-12 on layups and all 10 dunks, including this play by Jase Richardson to Coen Carr.

That’s now back-to-back wins for MSU (21-5, 12-3 in Big Ten).

Meanwhile, Purdue (19-8, 11-5) is on a three-game losing skid.

Purdue's big three — Trey Kaufman-Renn (24 points), Braden Smith (17 points), and Fletcher Loyer (eight points) combined for 49 of its 66 points, a stark contrast to Michigan State with eight players scoring at least seven points.

The winner of the Big Ten will come from the state of Michigan, as Purdue is now three games in the loss column behind Michigan and two behind MSU. And we’ll get head-to-head showdowns that play into that title. Michigan hosts the Spartans on Friday, while the regular-season finale is in East Lansing.

"We don't need anybody to beat anybody. We need to handle our business. We need to take care of business," Izzo said.

2. Did the Jayhawks just hit rock bottom?

If Saturday’s loss at Utah was bad, there may not be an adjective that properly describes Kansas’ 91-57 loss at BYU.

Abysmal? Feculent? Miserable? Whatever the word, it was historically bad.

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