This season's men's basketball prognosticators are back on the scene and ready to start talking basketball. Last year's The Boss (aka Matt Bishop) will be teaming up with everyone's favorite funny man, Tom "Tomahawk" Keller.
Will The Boss be able to redeem last season's poor predicting skills or will Tomahawk have the right prognosis and win the race?
No. 14 MSU vs. Wichita State
The Boss: Well, our mighty Spartans will face the, uh … the Shockers (are you serious?) in the annual Spartan Clash at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
This should be a certain "W" for the men in green and white. They looked amazing against Boston College after a couple of stinkers against lesser competition.
But don't overlook Wichita State, a good mid-major program. This should be yet another test for the Spartans.
In all honesty, I was expecting MSU to lose to Boston College. Now that they dominated that game at the end, the Spartans won't lose a game until the Big Ten schedule starts — probably at Wisconsin. But now we're getting ahead of ourselves.
As usual, this game will be close, but MSU will blow them away in the end.
MSU 79, Wichita State 61
Tomahawk: Playing on the Pistons' home court, expect the Spartans to look very similar to the defending Eastern Conference champions.
Drew Neitzel will get in a feud with Larry Brown.
Shannon Brown will hit jumper after jumper coming off of screens, then start yelling, "Yessir!" for no apparent reason.
Maurice Ager will shoot all his 3-pointers left-handed, then block Reggie Miller just for fun.
Paul Davis will spontaneously grow a gray spot in his hair, then get ejected in the first 15 seconds of the game.
Matt Trannon will bring back the 'fro.
And the team will win with defense.
MSU 86, Wichita State 60
No. 1 Duke vs. No. 2 Texas
The Boss: Well, here we go gang! No. 1 vs. No. 2 on a neutral court in New Jersey.
This is one of the best nonconference games of the year, and how could it not be?
As we found out Sunday, even though they won, the Blue Devils are a fraud and you can take that to the bank for the rest of the season.
To be fair, I'm not totally sold on Texas (or anyone else for that matter) but I'd like the Longhorns to come away with a win. Duke Vitale will cry.
Texas 74, Duke 70
Tomahawk: Before we get to No. 1 vs. No. 2 in the Rose Bowl, we get the same matchup in this game.
Both teams are undefeated, but in a pretty unconvincing fashion. Texas just barely scraped past West Virginia, while Duke needed a 40-footer at the buzzer to beat Virginia Tech and keep the Cameron Crazies from walking into oncoming traffic.
So, who's legit?
In an early season game such as this, it comes down to experience.
And as much as it pains me to say this, that advantage goes to J.J. "I Play Halo 2 Every Night With Adam Morrison" Redick and the Blue Devils.
Duke 79, Texas 74
No. 18 Indiana vs. No. 15 Kentucky
The Boss: This is also on a "neutral" court at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis and features one of the best rivalries around. It's just too bad that Bobby Knight won't be there.
Both teams have losses to unranked teams (ouch) recently, but will undoubtedly be fired up for this affair.
Kentucky fell to North Carolina before drubbing Georgia State (tough task, I know) while Indiana went on the road and lost to Indiana State. And no, Larry Bird didn't regain college eligibility for the game.
In reality, Indiana might not be as good as predicted. But, again, it's too early to make any long-term predictions on this season. Except that Michigan will be bad.
Kentucky 67, Indiana 61
Tomahawk: When Duke's big men got in foul trouble against Indiana earlier this season, Hoosiers forward Marco Killingsworth took over the game and finished with 34 points.
That's bad news for the Wildcats, who don't have a single player taller than 6-foot-8 in their regular rotation.
Expect Killingsworth — a great basketball name but an even better super villain name — to dominate once again, giving the Hoosiers their first marquee win of the year.
Indiana 71, Kentucky 63
