EAST LANSING – Four games, two weeks, one goal well within reach and another distant but still feasible.
That’s the rest of the regular season for No. 8 Michigan State (22-5, 9-5 Big Ten). It starts Tuesday at Ohio State (18-10, 10-5), a young team surging toward its own previously distant goal — an NCAA tournament bid.
The young, athletic Buckeyes have won four straight and outlasted Nebraska on the road in overtime Saturday. OSU is in fourth place and has a nonleague win over Kentucky, yet Thad Matta’s team (No. 75 in the RPI) still is not on the radar of NCAA bracket analysts.