Illinois' Mike Davis (24) dunks the ball in the final second of the game against Michigan State in the NCAA college basketball game at the Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill. on Saturday.

AP photo

Illinois coach Bruce Weber joked before his team’s game against Michigan State on Saturday that the rest of the Big Ten was rooting for the Illini.

A win would bring the Spartans back to the pack in the league, less than a week after Michigan State opened up a three-game lead on the rest of the Big Ten.

Then star guard Kalin Lucas went down and Michigan State dropped back-to-back games to Wisconsin, 67-49, and Illinois, 78-73.

The three-game lead became one with Michigan State at 9-2 and Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio State a game back at 8-3.

“It keeps us in the mix and puts a bunch of teams lumped in the next section of the conference right on their tails,” Weber said. “…It’s going to be a great finish.”

A half-game behind those teams is Purdue, the school Michigan State coach Tom Izzo thought would be the best in the league in the preseason. After struggling early, the Boilermakers have reasserted themselves as one of the powers in the league and the country.

It is familiar position for Purdue, which has been in the same situation the past two years.

“We haven’t won the Big Ten, we’ve finished second the past couple years, people talk about it and at times it can affect your mindset and your play and then what we really try to get to our guys is just to worry about the process, worry about the things you can control,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “And we need to take care of the basketball, need to take good shots, we need to block out instead of talking in theory about the race or another team.”

Lucas questionable

Lucas, the preseason Big Ten Player of the Year, sprained his ankle last week against Wisconsin and missed the Spartans’ loss to Illinois on Saturday.

His return? It’s still unclear.

“His status is still a question mark for tomorrow,” Izzo said.

Izzo said part of the issue with Lucas is his ability to cut both with and without the ball.
The other issue is with Lucas’ conditioning. He hasn’t done much since injuring the ankle in the second half last Tuesday in the Spartans’ 67-49 loss.

That said, Lucas told Izzo he wants to play if he can.

“He’ll play if it’s five minutes,” Izzo said. “It’s not one of those prima donna things.”

This and that

Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said he’d like the Big Ten to look into a rule requiring opponent shootaround being available at a reasonable time before games for road teams. Four times this season, DeChellis said, his team hasn’t been able to have a shootaround due to other events at opposing schools. … 

Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said he feels if the Wildcats can get to 10-8 in the Big Ten - they are currently 5-6 - “you have a pretty good shot” to get an NCAA tournament berth. Northwestern has never made the NCAAs. … Illinois’ Demetri McCamey and Ohio State’s Evan Turner shared Big Ten Player of the Week. It is Turner's league-record eighth Player of the Week honor in his career.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.