You could say that 10th ranked Michigan State had a bad week. The Spartans lost road games to both Wisconsin and Illinois and now not only have failed to cover four straight games. They must now put that behind them as they host the only Big Ten team ranked higher than they are, that being 6th ranked Purdue, on Tuesday night. As a result of the losing streak, MSU finds itself favored by just three points at most offshore sportsbooks.

The Boilermakers, meanwhile, have won five straight games following their own three-game losing streak, which occured early in the calendar year. Favored in all five wins, Purdue has not been particularly profitable for its backers going just 2-3 ATS in those games and has failed to cover six of its last eight games overall. Still, a win here and they would pull within one-half game of Michigan State for first place in the conference standings.

The Big Ten race wasn't always this close. The Spartans won their first nine Big Ten games to take a commanding three-game lead over everyone else in the league, but the two-game losing skid has resulted in three teams, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Illinois, pulling within one game of them. The big story in East Lansing has been the absence of not only the team's leading scorer, but the entire conference's in Kalin Lucas (17.1 PPG). Lucas sprained his ankle in the Wisconsin game, a 67-49 road loss as two-point underdogs. His status is currently listed as questionable for tonight's game. In four career game vs. Purdue, Lucas was averaging a solid 17.8 PPG.

Playing without Lucas on Saturday, the Spartans turned the ball over 18 times and allowed Illinois to shoot better than 57% in a 78-73 loss. Note that Michigan State is 14-1 Under when coming off a SU loss as a road favorite, a fact that totals players will no doubt be interested in.

The player to keep an eye on for Purdue is JaJuan Johnson. The team is 18-0 SU when he scores eight points or more this season. He has averaged 18.6 PPG during the team's five-game win streak.

History has not been kind to the Boilermakers in East Lansing. They've lost nine straight times at the Breslin Center by an average of 11.1 points per game. Also note that Matt Painter's team is a hideous 9-27 against the spread as a road underdog of six points or less.