The Michigan Wolverines just got done kicking the ever-living tar out of the Michigan State Spartans on Thursday night to tally win No. 19 of the college basketball betting season. Juwan Howard’s kids are destined to land a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament regardless of what goes down in Sunday’s rematch; or the B1G Tournament for that matter. Only Gonzaga and Baylor have shorter odds to cut the nets down come April than that of the Maize and Blue. It’s a much different story for Sparty however with the team either checking in as a double-digit seed or a member of the First Four dependent upon which bracketology talking head you champion. With that, a win at home over the third No. 1 seed would go a long way in sewing up yet another bid to the dance for Tom Izzo and the Spartans program. But does Aaron Henry and company have it in them to hold serve on their own hardwood a game removed from just getting pounded by 19 points?
Take this Big Ten matchup in live on CBS at 1 p.m. ET from the Breslin Center on Sunday, March 7, 2021. BookMaker.eu will have NCAA basketball odds available for this and every game lined up for Sunday’s college basketball schedule.
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One could only wonder how Thursday’s game would’ve played out had the Wolverines not just absorbed their most embarrassing defeat of the season after Illinois went into the Crisler Center and served them their dinner. Regardless, Michigan hit the ground running taking an 11 point lead into the break before coasting in the second half to log the 69-50 win and cover as 12-point favorites per the closing college basketball betting odds. The defense was relentless in holding the Spartans to a 36 percent showing buoyed by an ugly 0 for 9 effort from beyond the arc that resulted in the team’s second lowest scoring output of the season. U of M’s offense bounced back excellently from Tuesday’s nightmare against the Illini by draining 50 percent of its 52 overall shots. The team also hit the glass hard outboarding the Spartans 34-27. The triumph saw the Wolverines win and cover each of the last two meetings by an average of 14 points per game.
Michigan Wolverines
Franz Wagner and Hunter Dickinson did most of the heavy lifting for the offense in Thursday night’s showdown in Ann Arbor. The former would hit half of his 12 shots with four of them coming from distance to lead the team in scoring with 19 points. The latter logged yet another double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds by way of connecting on six of his eight overall attempted shots. MSU continues to have all kinds of issues preventing all opposition from scoring close to the rack with its 2-point defense now ranked No. 221 in the country. You can expect Howard to feed his big man routinely once again in the rematch on Sunday with Michigan looking to improve upon its 6-1 SU and ATS records when hitting the B1G highway.
Michigan State Spartans
Since logging impressive back-to-back wins against Illinois and Ohio State at home, the Spartans have gone 1-2 SU and ATS with the two losses of the absolute stinker variety. They fell at Maryland 73-55 in a game they were never in from the opening tip, and then got manhandled a game removed from fending off Indiana at home versus the Wolverines. Henry was the only player worth his salt on Thursday night leading MSU in scoring with 14 points and rebounding with five. Yes, you read that correctly – he led the team in rebounding with only five caroms! That’s simply not going to get the job done. The Spartans are a much better rebounding team than that! It must overachieve in that stat category in the rematch so as to prevent getting run off the hardwood once again.
Michigan vs. Michigan State Prediction
Will Michigan pack its “A” game for East Lansing or will it just go through the motions knowing full well it’s already locked into a No. 1 seed? Obviously MSU stands much more to gain from coming out on top of this one, but that’s undoubtedly easier said than done. Sparty showed on numerous occasions that it could go on runs against the Wolverines defense. Unfortunately, the defense was unable to prevent Michigan from going on bigger runs immediately after. It’s going to take a miraculous shooting effort from the Spartans to challenge their hated rivals in the second go round, but that’s something it’s been able to do recently at home with big showings against the Fighting Illini and Buckeyes. With that, look for more points to hit the board in the rematch and for MSU to be much more competitive. Whether it’s enough to win let alone cover remains to be seen.
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