Last week, I told a friend the four teams in the best position to lock up Number One seeds in the NCAA Tournament were Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse and Michigan State.

A week and three killer losses later, MSU (19-6, 9-3 Big Ten) has fallen out of that group.

It's amazing what an 8-day stretch can do in sports. A team can go from looking like Christina Milian to resembling something out of "Daybreakers." That's what's happened to the Spartans. Their last three opponents (Wisconsin, Illinois and Purdue) all shot better than 50 percent against MSU's defense. The three Ls came by an average of 12 points and players who had been steady for the lion's share of the season - Draymond Green and Durrell Summers - played like you'd think Tiger Woods would have the last few years with all the things he'd been hiding.

Ankle injury to reigning Big Ten Player of the Year Kalin Lucas aside, MSU hasn't put a complete game together since blasting Northwestern by 21 Jan. 2 in Evanston. Sure, the 9-0 start in conference LOOKED good, until you realize it came against the Wildcats, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Hickory High, Carver High and the high school from "Hang Time." One of those wins was against Illinois, but that was before the Illini hit their current stride. There are good things that came out of that stretch, though. We saw that MSU could win tough games in hard-to-win gyms (Williams Arena); and we saw how clutch Lucas is.

That's why I'm not jumping off the bandwagon. These are the dog days of the college season. Sure, you want your team to go undefeated every year, but the likelihood of that happening is about as high as Kevin Federline's vertical leap. Two of the teams now on State's tail in the Big Ten title race (Purdue, Ohio State) had three-game skids of their own, now they look like they could make deep tournament runs. Plus, I trust coach Tom Izzo to straighten his guys out and find a way to make a deep run of their own.

Another thing on MSU's side is the upcoming schedule. Four of the Spartans' remaining six games are against three of the four worst teams in the conference (Michigan, Penn State and Indiana). Those three teams have combined to go 8-26 in Big Ten games. MSU gets Ohio State at home Feb. 21 and travels to West Lafayette to take on the Boilermakers Feb. 28.

I think MSU will straighten things out and go 5-1 in its last six games. That's due in part to having four games against teams that couldn't win a wheelchair basketball league and partly because there's too much pride and talent in East Lansing for the slide to continue.

Look for the Spartans to finish 24-7, 14-4 and share the regular season title with Purdue. After having my hopes of a one seed dashed in a week's time, I'm looking for the Spartans to be no lower than a three seed in the Big Dance.

What happens from there? Who knows.

Each year, millions of people have Super Bowl parties.

When you invite people into your home, you should be a gracious host. Sometimes, though, a host/hostess has to draw the line and tell certain people “nope. Sorry, man. You’re not getting in here tonight.”

Everybody knows someone who takes advantage of the host’s home during a Super Bowl Party. So I took the time out of my busy, BUSY schedule to compile a list of people to totally exclude from your Super Bowl festivities.

‘The circus is in town’ guy
Everyone knows several people like this. They eat too much salsa or too many buffalo wings, then leave your bathroom smelling like a monkey cage. I was at a party once where I thought I needed to wear a Hazmat suit and galoshes in order to just wash my hands.

The ‘mooch’
This person might be the worst of the bunch. The mooch comes to your party, empty-handed, then proceeds to pile snacks on plate after plate. He doesn’t eat them while he’s there, though; he wraps them in foil, sticks them in an old Kroger bag and puts them in his car. That’s not even the worst part. After all that, he comes back to the party…and eats more food.

The ‘teach me’ girl/boyfriend
I know several women who have immense football knowledge. By that I mean they know how many points a touchdown is, what a running back does, what offsides is, etc. Women like my mom, though, are a different story. She’s the same woman who told somebody Barry Sanders played linebacker. There’s nothing wrong with teaching your girlfriend (or boyfriend in some odd cases) the game of football, but holding that class during the Super Bowl is sacrilegious. People are trying to enjoy the game, eat their smokey links and have some libations. No one wants to hear somebody whispering, “hey, sweetie, you know those wide receivers you told me about? I thought they’d be fatter?”

‘I couldn’t find a babysitter’ guy
I’ve been to a couple Super Bowl shindigs where parents had to bring their little tykes. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as the kids know how to act. Home training has been lacking in some instances, though. My solution: throw a box of Capri Sun and a bag of Combo’s in a room with a 12-inch TV, Nintendo Wii and one Wii remote. The youngsters will either learn to ration out snacks and share or it’ll turn into the 21st-century version of “Lord of the Flies” really, REALLY fast.

‘I don’t have to work the next day’ guy
This person always wears out their welcome. They come four hours before the game starts and drink like a fish. Usually, once the game’s over, people file out, say how much fun they had, yada, yada, yada. But this guy is still hanging around, trying to find any remnants of left-over liquor and snacks. I know some people view Super Bowl Sunday as a holiday, but this guy takes it to a whole ‘nother level by taking the following Monday off work. No matter what you do — yawn, doze off — he’s not leaving.
My advice: as soon as the game’s over, tell him you’re out of booze.

‘I’m gonna buy all the squares’ guy
For those of you who don’t know what squares is, during the game, you pick numbers from 0-9 and try and determine what the scores will be at the end of each quarter. For example, if you pick 4 and 6, and the score at the end of the first quarter is 14-6, you win some scratch. Some people are obsessed with this game so much to the point they’ll buy damn near half the board. Win or lose, they’re unbearable. I’m talking Fran Drescher’s voice unbearable. I’ve often had the urge to pull a 211 on the winners because of constant questions of “did I have those numbers? Are those my numbers? How much is the pot?” Newsflash: it’s just for fun; and, usually, the house fixes the games.

For anyone hosting a Super Bowl Bash, you can easily identify these people. You probably already know them. And for those of you planning to hit a Super Bowl party, don’t end up like these folks.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to figure out which prop bets I wanna put potato chips on.