What on earth is wrong with Michigan State?

The Spartans are one of the great home teams in college basketball, but Sunday's loss to Penn State was MSU's second in a row at the Breslin Center and dropped them to just 3-6 ATS in East Lansing this year.

Interestingly, it was the second year in a row that Penn State upset a Top-10 Michigan State team on Super Bowl weekend - although last year's was in Happy Valley. This year's loss was State's first ever to Penn State at home; the last time MSU fell twice in a row at home was in the 1997-98 season, when the Spartans dropped back-to-back games against Temple and Detroit. MSU hadn't lost consecutive Big Ten games at home since the 1996-97 season.

Yet you can probably pinpoint what the Spartans' issue is: Raymar Morgan. The starting forward and one-time leading scorer played just three minutes against PSU with what is being called walking pneumonia. He has averaged just 12.5 minutes in the Spartans' last four games, and just 5.5 minutes in the last two.

Coach Tom Izzo said he doesn't expect the junior forward to play at all this week. MSU probably won't miss him at home against Indiana on Saturday, but it definitely might on Wednesday against Minnesota, which is just a game back in the Big Ten.

"We're baffled," MSU coach Tom Izzo said to reporters about Morgan's condition. "He just doesn't have any strength."

Reserve guard Isaiah Dahlman also may not play this week after he suffered a sprained ankle during pregame warm-ups Sunday.

MICHIGAN: The Wolverines are sliding, having lost two games in a row and five of six after Purdue routed them on Saturday. The good news is that Michigan sophomore guard Manny Harris isn't expected to be punished by the Big Ten office after being ejected against the Boilermakers for a flagrant foul. A league spokesman said Monday that Big Ten officials reviewed the tape of Saturday's incident and decided that it did not raise to the level of the conference's sportsmanlike conduct policy.

A Harris elbow caught Purdue defender Chris Kramer in the face. Kramer said he was briefly knocked out and said his nose was broken, but he did not consider it a dirty play and did not believe Harris meant to hurt him. Harris, UM's leading scorer, has been held under 10 points in three of the past four games. Michigan hosts Penn State on Thursday and then is at No. 1 Connecticut on Saturday.

NORTHWESTERN: The Wildcats had a 2-0 week, beating Indiana and Wisconsin for their fourth conference win in the past five. NU shot 57.1 percent against a Badger team that had beaten them by 29 points earlier in January. Wisconsin hasn't won since that game and is officially dead in the water for an at-large NCAA berth.

Northwestern, meanwhile, is now envisioning its first-ever trip to the Big Dance. It goes out of conference to face Chicago State on Wednesday before traveling to Iowa on Saturday. Following that is three straight Big Ten home games for NU, which is 10-2 at home and 6-3 ATS there.

OHIO STATE: The Buckeyes have a tough week ahead against ranked foes, with Purdue visiting on Tuesday night and Minnesota on Saturday night. Last week, OSU shot a combined 60 percent from the floor in beating Michigan and Indiana.

Evan Turner was named Big Ten Player of the Week for the second time this season, totaling 53 points and 15 rebounds in the two wins. He hit 70 percent of his field goals (16-23) and 91 percent of his foul shots (21-23).

However, both Michigan and Indiana are struggling, so this could be the week that the Buckeyes cement their NCAA Tournament resume or find themselves having a lot of work to do. OSU is just 4-5 ATS at home this year.