The Minnesota Golden Gophers will arrive in East Lansing on Saturday as the clear road underdogs in their matchup with the No. 9 Michigan State Spartans, but the Golden Gophers can’t be taken lightly. For one, they have nearly pulled off an upset win against the Michigan Wolverines and did score an upset victory against the Iowa Hawkeyes. Minnesota is +30,000 to win the national title, while the Spartans are +1,200 to be the last team standing this season.
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Betting Preview for the Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Michigan State Spartans College Basketball Game on February 9, 2019
Where: Jack Breslin Student Events Center, East Lansing
When: Saturday, February 9, 2019, 2:00 PM ET
Line: Minnesota Golden Gophers (odds) vs. Michigan State Spartans (odds) – view all NCAA Basketball lines
TV Broadcast: ESPN
Betting on the Minnesota Golden Gophers (16-6 Overall / 6-5 Conference)
The Golden Gophers nearly took down a biggie over the weekend, but their efforts were not just enough to avoid a 73-63 road loss to the No. 17 Purdue Boilermakers. Minnesota held an 11-point lead at one point in the second half of that game, but just couldn’t stop Purdue guard Carsen Edwards, who scattered 15 of his 17 points in the second half. Hopefully for the Golden Gophers, they would put up a better performance defending against Michigan State’s star guard Cassius Winston, who’s arguably a harder guard to defend than Edwards. Although Minnesota isn’t a favorite to win the Big Ten, it has the capability to send any team in the conference foolish enough to underestimate the Gophers crashing to the ground. For one, the Golden Gophers have a solid tandem of Amir Coffey and Jordan Murphy and a total of four players scoring at least 10.1 points per game. Coffey leads the team with 16.2 points per game, while Murphy puts up 14.9 points. Murphy is also the conference’s leading rebounder with 11.8 boards per contest.
Minnesota is 3-3 against the spread (ATS) in six road games this season.
Betting on the Michigan State Spartans (18-4 Overall / 9-2 Conference)
As of this writing, the Spartans are on a losing skid, having last their last two games to Purdue on the road on Jan. 7 (73-63) and to the Indiana Hoosiers last Saturday at home (79-75 OT). Michigan State can redeem itself this Tuesday, albeit against a dangerous Illinois Fighting Illinis. The Spartans are easily the favorites against Illinois, but they can’t be so sure because the Fighting Illinis have proven their ability to bite back. One problem for the the Spartans is that they are still coping with the loss of Joshua Langford for the rest of the season because of a left foot injury. With Langford out, there are added burden to the shoulders of Winston and Nick Ward to carry the Spartans, while the likes of Matt McQuaid and Xavier Tillman are being asked to step it up to help cover for Langford’s season average of 15.0 points per game. Winston is the leader of the team, as he’s scoring 18.8 points per game to go with a 7.3 assist per contest, which is tops among all players in the Big Ten.
Michigan State is 8-3 ATS in 11 home games so far this season.
Writer’s Prediction
Michigan State wins, 77-65.
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