Big Ten Network

Joey Nowak: If you watched Penn State’s loss to Ohio State this week, you saw an inspired team that was ready to play in a big-game scenario at home, but fell just short by 12 points, space that would have been filled by potential All-Big Ten selection Geary Claxton. The fact of the matter is, no matter how well Penn State plays, they’re inevitably going to dearly miss those 12-plus points (and usually more) that Claxton provided before he went down for the season with a torn ACL. The Spartans just have too much.

MSU 76, Penn State 63

Sean Ely: There’s no question about it — MSU should win this game. The Nittany Lions can compete, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t match up very well against the Green and White. Penn State’s bench will have to do a lot of work in this one to give the team a chance. Even if that happens, I don’t think the Nittany Lions will be the squad to derail the speedy Spartans.

MSU 73, Penn State 61

Kristi Jourdan: Penn State cannot compete well against MSU. With Drew Neitzel and Raymar Morgan on their respective scoring streaks, the team will be tough to defend. While the Nittany Lions will be able to keep up with the Spartans, they simply do not have what it takes to play a team of as high of a caliber as MSU.

MSU 76, Penn State 68

Matt Bishop: As of now, all signs are pointing to a big MSU win this weekend. Penn State is without its best player and, even though the Nittany Lions will be at home for this one, a much inferior MSU team went into Bryce Jordan Center last season and brought a ‘W’ back to East Lansing. The Spartans are riding a nice little wave of momentum right now and I just can’t see Penn State touching that at this point. Penn State will need its best overall performance of the season — and more — to even come close in this one.

MSU 81, Penn State 63

No. 5 MSU hockey vs. Nebraska-Omaha

7:05 p.m. tonight/4:05 p.m. Saturday

FSN Detroit (Saturday)

JN: Jeff Lerg is pitching shutouts left and right and earned his team a chance at a sweep of mighty Michigan last weekend. And if it wasn’t for one fluke goal, he certainly would have had it. Now all he needs is a little offense behind him and the Spartans will be cruising. Nebraska-Omaha is a great opponent for them to get all the gears turning.

MSU 3-0, MSU 4-1

SE: After those two games against U-M, I have no doubt this Spartans team is ready to make a serious run. They hit hard and they took every second seriously in those games. Just because one puck bounced a certain way doesn’t give U-M justice. Nebraska-Omaha shouldn’t be very excited for this one, because MSU has got to be antsy about this series. They want to win two.

MSU 2-1, MSU 3-1

KJ: The Spartans are gearing up for the two-game weekend series against Nebraska-Omaha, and there is no doubt in my mind they’ll walk away with four points. Last weekend proved they can play with anyone. Junior goaltender Jeff Lerg has taken absolute charge of the team and only inspires his teammates to do better — to be better. That kind of attitude will fire up MSU despite a tie in the U-M series. Everyone will forget about that fluky goal.

MSU 3-1, MSU 3-2

MB: I’ll tell you right now that Nebraska-Omaha is not a team to sleep on. The Mavericks are well-coached, have one of the best players in the league and usually give the Spartans a run for their money. In fact, they swept the Spartans at Munn Ice Arena in 2005. Since then, it’s been all MSU for the most part, but the Mavs still come to play hard every night and I’m not expecting anything different here. With all that being said, MSU should sweep, but it will be hard-fought.

MSU 4-1, MSU 5-2