The Michigan State Spartans just keep rolling right along. They've overcome their one loss of the season by rolling off three straight victories, and they've got a shot to exorcize their demons from last year's Big Ten Tournament when they take on the Wisconsin Badgers.
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HOW THE MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS CAN COVER THE SPREAD
Last year against Wisconsin, Michigan State just couldn't force any turnovers whatsoever. The Badgers were just tremendously efficient from the field in all of the games between these two.
Go back and look at these last three wins for the Spartans. They've done it on defense. The last three foes have averaged just 60.0 points per game, and if that's where MSU stays the rest of the Big Ten campaign, it's going to be on its way to a top seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Sparty allows teams to shoot 35.9 percent from the field and 26.4 percent from beyond the arc. This Wisconsin team isn't good offensively as it is, so the Spartans are definitely capable of putting together yet another really strong defensive effort.
HOW THE WISCONSIN BADGERS CAN COVER THE SPREAD
If the Spartans have to win this game on defense, the Badgers have to win it on offense. Wisconsin averages just 68.6 points per game, and here in the Big Ten, it has had five games and has only scored more than 65 points once against Rutgers.
We've seen the problems from all year long get magnified here in conference play. Nigel Hayes, Bronson Koenig and Ethan Happ are more or less taking turns having good games. The three rarely all have awesome nights at the same time, but even if they do, the rest of the offense is generally nowhere to be found.
There are five men who average at least eight points per game, but aside from that, no one else is good for more than 3.4 points per game, and often times, those players don't end up scoring.
It's not that the Badgers have to have six guys reach double figures in this game, but eight or nine players have to get on the scoreboard if there's any legitimate chance for success against such a good Michigan State team.
ANALYSIS AND ODDS PREDICTION
The Badgers are interesting to follow right now. They've failed to cover two straight games, and we wonder if they're going to be in worse shape in the near future. Even though that game against Maryland came down to the last shot, it was always a game in which Wisconsin was behind, and it always looked like the middling team which was trying to pull off an upset.
The Spartans are clearly the better of these two teams, and they should start to pull away at some point. The Badgers don't have the talent to keep up with a Michigan State team which has legitimately eight or nine different men who could hit three or four shots in a game.
We really have the feeling that Wisconsin is going to end up being a lackluster Big Ten team. Sure, the Badgers will pull off some upsets here at the Kohl Center, but more often than not, these two teams are going to be separated by a healthy margin. More often than not, Sparty gets out of Madison with a relatively big win.
Michigan State 69, Wisconsin 53
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Mobile betting lines are updated by the minute, so click here to start gambling on thrilling live action at BookMaker Sportsbook! The matchup between the Michigan State Spartans and Wisconsin Badgers will go down Sunday, January 17, 2016 at 1:30 p.m. ET at the Kohl Center. The matchup will be televised live on CBS.
