NCAA Basketball Betting – Spartans vs Hoosiers
The Big Ten’s top dog Michigan State will look to continue their conference dominance on Tuesday, by notching its seventh straight victory with a win over the resurgent Indiana Hoosiers who have slide back into the top 25 by winning five of their last six.
Date/Time: 7:00 PM ET, Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Venue: Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana
Broadcast: ESPN
Spread: OFF
Over/Under: OFF
With a crushing 62-34 win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers in conference play their last time out, the Spartans moved to 24-5 overall and improved their conference record to 13-3.
MSU is playing amazing at home (17-0), and had already beaten the not-so-hot Cornhuskers earlier this season, 68-55, but one-upped themselves in this one by holding the Cornhuskers to their lowest point total since 1961.
For the 15th time this season, Draymond Green led all scorers with 20 points and became the fourth player in school history to reach 1,000 career rebounds as he helped out with a game-leading 10 for the 29th time this year.
Green has been dominating opponents, and has been a huge ingredient to the Spartans’ success in overpowering the competition in shooting and rebounding.
Michigan State shot 59 percent against the Huskers, and if that wasn’t enough, limited Nebraska to just 29 percent. The Spartans also hit the glass harder, and that led to more possessions and second-chance shots. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Nevertheless, rebounding is something the Hoosiers can matchup against well with the Spartans, as they used a big advantage on the boards to win the possession battle in their most recent 69-50 win over Minnesota.
Several Hoosiers shared the scoring lead against the Golden Gophers, each with 12 as Indiana also grabbed a hefty 21 points from the charity stripe.
Cody Zeller, the team’s leading scorer seems to have gelled well with forward Christian Watford, who has now led the team in scoring in six out of 29 games this season.
The win was Indiana’s ninth conference victory, which is one more than it had from 2009-11 combined and moved them into a tie for fifth place with Purdue and a half-game behind Wisconsin in the Big Ten standings.
If Indiana wins out and the Badgers lose two of their final three games, the Hoosiers will receive a first-round bye in the conference tournament, so a win over MSU is vital.
However, getting passed Green and the Spartans might prove to be a little bit more of a challenge than the Hoosiers are prepared for.
Their only chance in this one, is to go hard to the bucket, winning as many trips to the foul line as possible, forcing Tom Izzo to use more of his bench than he wants to.
Free Pick: MSU
