By Sam Federman

Tom Izzo has accomplished a lot as the head coach at Michigan State. He's won over 700 games, made eight Final Fours, and won a national title in 2000. On Tuesday night, he accomplished something he's never done before.
The Spartans finished off December and January a remarkable 12-0, pushing the team to 9-0 in the Big Ten with a 73-51 win over Minnesota inside the Breslin Center. It's the first time that Izzo has finished the months of December and January without a loss.
Despite being among the 20 worst three-point shooting teams in college basketball, Michigan State has a top 20 offense. With multiple dynamic playmaking guards like Jeremy Fears and Tre Holloman, along with the incredible minutes from freshman Jase Richardson supplementing Jaden Akins in the backcourt, MSU has a deep guard group that can control a game.
Nobody on this Michigan State team has a usage rating higher than 23.1%, but it doesn't matter - the team plays well together - ranking 4th nationally in assists per field goal.
On the defensive end, the deep frontcourt allows them to protect the rim aggressively no matter who is in the game. Jaxon Kohler, Carson Cooper, Xavier Booker, and Szymon Zapala combined to form the Big Ten's top rim defense.
Now, Michigan State's schedule hasn't been incredibly difficult yet. The team not yet faced Purdue, Michigan, Oregon, Wisconsin, UCLA, or Maryland yet, but they did pick up a huge home win against Illinois on a CBS Sunday.
Next up, the Spartans go on the road to Los Angeles for games against UCLA and USC, with Oregon coming up right after that in Breslin.
Other teams who have completed perfect January's
Louisville (8-0)
McNeese (8-0)
St. John's (7-0)
Duke (7-0)
Southern (7-0)
Utah Valley (7-0)
Teams that are one win away from a perfect January
Akron (8-0) at Kent State, Friday
Cleveland State (8-0) at Fort Wayne, Thursday
Omaha (7-0) at South Dakota, Wednesday
Saint Mary's (7-0) at Santa Clara, Wednesday
Houston (7-0) at West Virginia, Wednesday
Bryant (6-0) at UMBC, Thursday
Auburn (6-0) at LSU, Wednesday
Yale (5-0) at Princeton, Friday
It's pretty wild that every single one of those teams has to go on the road to complete its perfect month.
Mid-Major games to keep an eye on tonight
Samford at Furman, 6 pm, CBSSN
Colgate at Army, 6 pm, ESPN+
Northern Iowa at Drake, 7 pm, ESPN+
North Texas at Wichita State, 7:30 pm, ESPN+
UIC at Bradley, 8 pm, ESPN+