Big Ten basketball doesn’t get any bigger than Ohio State vs. Michigan State. The Buckeyes, led by one of, if not the hottest college hoops star in the nation today, has climbed its way back into the Top 25. Meanwhile, the unranked Spartans are still searching for more consistency in what has been an up-and-down season.
Who emerges victorious in this meeting between two of the conference’s most successful schools? Read on below for our preview of this big B1G battle.
Make a date with college hoops’ Valentine’s Day matchups. Check our previews of Baylor vs. Kansas and South Carolina vs. Kentucky.
[sc:MarchMadness ]Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Michigan State Spartans Betting Preview
Where: Breslin Center, East Lansing
When: Saturday, February 14, 12:00 PM ET
Line: Ohio State Buckeyes at Michigan State Spartans – view all NCAA Basketball lines
Betting on the Ohio State Buckeyes
For once, the No. 23 Ohio State Buckeyes (19-6, 8-4 Big Ten) won even with a bad shooting night from their star, D’Angelo Russell. The freshman, who’s averaging a team-high 19.5 points per game this season, scored 17 points but went just 4-of-13 from the field in the Buckeyes’ 75-55 win over Penn State on Wednesday. Sam Thompson led the way with a season-high 22 points.
[sc:NCAAB240banner ]Russell notched his first career triple-double with 23 points, 11 boards and 11 assists in their previous game, a 79-60 blowout win at Rutgers on Sunday. Fellow freshman Jae’Sean Tate was his wingman in that game with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting.
With second-leading scorer Marc Loving expected to miss his third straight game for an undisclosed reason, the Buckeyes will need Tate and/or Thompson to continue helping Russell carry the offensive load. Neither was able to get it going in Ohio State’s 60-58 road loss at Purdue on Feb. 4.
But the key, as always for Ohio State, will be how Russell plays. Russell will have a challenging matchup against Michigan State’s tall guards in Bryn Forbes and Denzel Valentine, but size hasn’t mattered much for the 6-5 freshman. He averaged 20 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in two games against the tall and talented backcourts of Indiana and Maryland en route to back-to-back wins over ranked teams.
Ohio State is 7-3 against the spread in its last 10 visits to East Lansing.
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Betting on the Michigan State Spartans
Michigan State (16-8, 7-4 Big Ten) took out its frustration from a very disappointing 59-54 home loss to Illinois on a helpless Northwestern by thrashing the Wildcats, 68-44, on Tuesday. Leading scorers Travis Trice (13.5 points per game) and Denzel Valentine (14.4 points per game) combined for 40 of the Spartans’ 68 points and eight of their 13 three-pointers.
The Spartans have not been impressive at home this season. They’re 4-2 in conference play (and suffered a hideous 71-64 overtime loss to Texas Southern in December) at East Lansing. However, they needed overtime to beat both last place Northwestern and an injury-riddled Michigan. They also beat 3-9 Penn State by just six.
Free throw shooting has been an issue all season long for Michigan State. The team is dead-last in the conference at 61 percent from the charity stripe, and shot an abysmal 7-for-18 in their five-point loss to Illinois, 15-for-25 in their two point loss to Nebraska and 12-for-21 in their seven-point overtime loss to Texas Southern. Their awful free-throw shooting makes the Spartans tough to trust in close games.
But their awful free-throw shooting won’t hurt them as much if their defense can turn it on and build a big lead. This is exactly what they did to a very good Indiana offense in a 70-50 blowout win on Jan. 5.
Michigan State’s veteran guards have harried two other star freshman point guards in James Blackmon Jr. (1-for-14) and Melo Trimble (2-for-13) into awful shooting games at East Lansing, and should give Russell all he can handle.
Writer’s Prediction
Russell and the Buckeyes have too much for the Spartans as they win and cover on the road.
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