The Spartans won on Friday night but they were definitely pushed harder than I would have expected – Virginia just has a way of getting under your skin and Michigan State struggled to put them away. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
#4 Michigan State Spartans vs. #7 Connecticut Huskies ATS Matchup Insight<\/a> | CP Insider Gambling Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Still they are right where we expected with a chance to punch their ticket for the Final Four on Sunday. This UConn team is a really good matchup for them too. They also exercised their MSG demons because when they played Georgetown there during the season it wasn\u2019t pretty.<\/p>\n I think this game will mostly come down to C Adrien Payne. The multi-talented senior is enjoying a fine send-off season and he will be a very difficult matchup for the Huskies, who lack quality inside players.<\/p>\n If the Spartans get a strong game from Payne the rest of the team can certainly match whatever UConn throws at them. Brandon Dawson has also been awesome lately and his physicality up front could cause problems for opponents.<\/p>\n It is hard not to like the Spartans but they have been showing a tendency to play down to their competition a little bit putting spreads in Jeopardy even when they have no threat of losing.<\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t rush on this one to see how the line moves. As I expected the Huskies were able to get by the Iowa State Cyclones in a close game that injures ISU forward Georges Niang might have provided the difference in. The more you see them the more you can see that this is a very tough Huskies bunch.<\/p>\n They may be led by great guards but the rest of their team is making the necessary contributions, at just the right moments too.<\/p>\n DeAndre Daniels is going to be key in this one. He was critical to the Huskies win against ISU leading the team with 27 points and 10 rebounds. They need him to keep up that kind of production against MSU, especially on the board or else the Huskies are going to be in trouble.<\/p>\n Speedy guards Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright will have quickness advantages and they will have to take advantage, not bomb from the outside too much.<\/p>\n How UConn stays in this game will be if they can compete in the glass. They actually outrebounded ISU but if possible they are actually a smaller team than the Huskies.<\/p>\n MSU is not and they are known for their attention in this area.<\/p>\n If you can handicap this aspect than you can make a smart call on the game too.<\/p>\n Spread prediction: Michigan State -5.5 Huskies vs Spartans Pick – NCAA Tournament The Spartans won on Friday night but they were definitely pushed harder than I would have expected – Virginia just has a way of getting under your skin and Michigan State struggled to put them away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":73645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1415],"tags":[61353,1771,61678,61679,11740,12280,61680,2863,61677],"class_list":["post-74728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-2014-ncaa-tournament","tag-connecticut-huskies","tag-connecticut-huskies-vs-michigan-state-spartans","tag-connecticut-vs-michigan-state","tag-east-bracket","tag-elite-8","tag-huskies-vs-spartans","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-uconn-huskies-vs-michigan-st-spartans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74728"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74746,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74728\/revisions\/74746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSunday March 30
\nMadison Square Garden – New York, NY
\n2:20PM
\nMoneyline: Michigan State -245, Connecticut +205
\nSpread: Michigan State -5.5
\nTotal: 139.5<\/strong>
\n [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p>\nMichigan State<\/h3>\n
*CLICK HERE* GRAB OUR BEST Expert CBB Picks for 2014 GAMBLING season!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
\n[ad-6571516]
\nIf it comes down then go for it if it goes up then take a pass.<\/p>\nConnecticut<\/h3>\n
\nTotals prediction: Over
\nScore prediction: Michigan State 76 – Connecticut 66<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"