Minnesota (17-10) has lost 4 of their last 5 games and for them to have anychance to make the Big Dance they may have to beat a top 10 Michigan State(22-5) at home in this Big 10 match up. When these 2 teams met at MichiganState a few weeks back the Spartans crushed the Golden Gophers by 16 points.Minnesota is only 1-4 facing ranked teams this season and since they sit at 4-games under .500 in Big 10 play this game may be a MUST win. Beating theSpartans will be no easy task for sure, since the Spartans have won 5 straightgames and in that span they have beaten 3 ranked teams.

In their last games Michigan State was on the road and still had no problembeating Purdue 76-62 while Minnesota was on the road and lost to Northwestern64-53.

While Michigan State has been a solid betting team this season at 17-7 ATS withan Over/Under record of 12-11-1 the same cannot be said about Minnesota, asthey are 11-12-1 ATS with an Over/Under record of 12-11-1.

Minnesota has a decent defense and they will have to shine on D in this game,as the Spartans’ offense is playing well and the Golden Gophers only rank 176thin the nation in scoring. Also, the Spartans rank 10th in the nation in rebounds pergame while the Gophers only rank 181st.

MSU leading scorer and rebounder Draymond Green (15.4 ppg 10.5 rpg) hasbeen on fire in the last few games and he will be tough to stop.

Green and G Keith Appling (12 ppg) give MSU a great high/low combo andMinnesota’s defense has their work cut out for them in this big conference game.

With leading scorer and rebounder Trevor Mbakwe lost for the season with aknee injury the Golden Gophers will need a good game from Rodney Williams(11 ppg 5.4 rpg), who now leads the team in ppg and rpg.

Gophers’ Guards Julian Welch (10.5 ppg) and Austin Hollins (8.3 ppg) can bothknock down the 3 and they will need to hit some long balls to keep this gameclose. The entire Minnesota frontcourt must body up on Green and the big guysfor MSU, or they will get killed on the glass.

Michigan State is 7-3 ATS in their last 10 road games, 16-5 ATS in their last 21games overall, and they have an Under record of 8-1 in their last 9 games facinga team with a winning record.

Minnesota is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall, 0-4 ATS in their last 4 homegames vs. a team with a winning road record, and they have an Over record of 4-1 in their last 5 home games.

: Even with Minnesota getting quite a few points at home theywill lose badly just like they did a few weeks back facing MSU. The Spartans willeasily win this game and cover the spread.

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