The No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats never rebuild, just reload. John Calipari has Kentucky in a fine position once again this season with a super-talented group of freshmen paired with a fine sophomore in Isaiah Briscoe. Briscoe has given this group the leadership it needs through Kentucky’s first two games and he will play an even bigger role now that the Wildcats are facing a name opponent. He’ll be one of the players to watch when Kentucky takes on the Michigan State Spartans.
This war on the floor will go down Tuesday, November 15, 2016, at 7 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden. The game will be televised live on ESPN. We’ll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Tuesday schedule.
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Michigan State suffered a tough loss in its season opener against Arizona in the Armed Forces Classic. The Spartans lost 65-63 as a 1-point favorite in a game that was back-and-forth throughout.
The Wildcats are one of just a handful of teams that have played two games at this point, and are 2-0 SU and 1-1 ATS in that time frame. In each of the two games, Kentucky was favored by at least 21 points and both games finished over the total.
Key Stat
Kentucky has averaged 90 PPG through its first two games thanks to some solid shooting. Briscoe has led the Wildcats in scoring in each of the first two and has provided a steady hand while this young squad gets its feet under it. He is hitting 62.5 percent of his shots through two games, but it’s still to be determined whether or not he has improved at the line. Last season, he hit just 46 percent of his free throws and he became a liability on the floor late in games.
De’aaron Fox is going to be the set-up man for Kentucky this season, but he has to be able to make threes. He has had his issues from the floor, but has yet to make a shot from behind the arc. The good news is that Fox has shown that he can distribute the ball to his playmakers and he has tallied 15 assists through his first two games at the collegiate level.
Player to Watch
There was a lot of buzz about Miles Bridges coming into the season and the Michigan native has looked like he was worth the hype after his first performance. Bridges hit 9 of his 19 shot attempts from the floor against Arizona and looked perfectly comfortable in the moment. He also showed that he still has a ways to go however.
Bridges went just 1-6 from behind the arc and turned the ball over four times. Although he is the characteristics to be a shutdown defender, he had lapses as times and checked out of the game. He’ll get better as the season wears on, but he is just a freshman at this point.
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Aside from Bridges, Michigan State didn’t get a lot of production out of its line-up against Arizona and that’s something that will be concerning for this game. No other Spartan hit double digits in scoring on the night and Tom Izzo’s side will need to find a secondary scorer to Bridges.
The Spartans will also need to clean up a lot of their mistakes from last game. Michigan State committed 23 fouls and 18 turnovers against Arizona and that won’t cut it versus a Kentucky team that punishes mistakes.
Expect a good game but plenty of mistakes as both teams are still young and trying to find their way. In a game like this, the under is a quality bet and that’s the side we recommend you to take.
College Basketball Odds: Michigan State 67, Kentucky 64
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