Michigan State basketball is in big trouble.
Forget about a fourth straight Big Ten regular-season title — the Spartans haven’t even won a conference game. And they look progressively worse on defense and increasingly lost on offense as the New Year arrives.
No. 24 Minnesota buried No. 18 MSU by building a 20-point halftime lead Monday night in Minneapolis and sustaining it late to send the Spartans to their third straight defeat to open Big Ten play, 81-56 — the largest margin of victory ever by the Gophers over MSU.
It is just the second time in coach Tom Izzo’s 26 seasons that MSU has opened league play with three straight defeats.