Tread lightly when allowing this many points to a home team. Northwestern is technically at home, but is playing in an arena far from campus, reducing its home-court edge. The Wildcats have dropped their last eight decisions in this series and could be missing point guard Bryant McIntosh, who's nursing an injured shoulder. He's the team's main assist guy and scores 12 points a game, to boot. Without him, the Wildcats fumbled away a late lead to Rutgers and were hammered by Nebraska last month. The Spartans have put in a lot of miles lately but hardly ever take a foe lightly.