Michigan State at Wisconsin


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The Michigan State Spartans travel to face the 19th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers Sunday. The Spartans have had few bright spots this season, but one was certainly their comeback win over the Badgers earlier this season. They erased a late nine point deficit to come back and beat Wisconsin 64-61 in overtime. Little has gone right for the Spartans since that January 11th win, and they are actually in jeopardy of missing the NCAA Tournament. The spread for this contest show us a line of Wisconsin -9 over Michigan State with a total set of 123.5 points.

Wisconsin (16-5, 6-3) is undefeated at home this season and they’ve won seven straight home meetings with the Spartans. The Badgers have reeled off three victories in four games since losing to Michigan State. They beat No. 11 Purdue 66-59 at home on Thursday. Jon Leuer poured in 24 points, and Ryan Evans hit a big shot to give the Badgers the lead with 50 seconds remaining. They would never trail again.

Leuer leads the team in scoring (19.4) and rebounding (7.1) this season. Only he and Jordan Taylor (17.2 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 4.5 APG) score in double-figures for the Badgers this year, so the key to stopping Wisconsin is containing these two. Michigan State has not won in Madison since 2001, and they’ve been held to less than 50 points in their last two defeats at the Kohl Center. Rebounding is a big reason why Wisconsin is so good this season, as they hold a 7.2 rebound advantage over their foes en route to a 12-0 home mark.

Michigan State (13-9, 5-5) opened the season ranked No. 2 in the preseason AP poll. They were knocked out of the Top 25 over a month ago and have lost four straight road games. That includes perhaps their worst loss of the season, a 72-52 setback at Iowa. The Spartans shot just 33.9 percent from the floor in that loss Wednesday. Kalin Lucas had a decent game with 17 points and is the team’s leading scorer at 15.6 points per game.

Durrell Summers appeared to get on track by scoring a combined 30 points in two games before the Iowa contest. But his inconsistency continued, as Summers put up a mere six points against the Hawkeyes. Not only are they struggling offensively, the Spartans have given up a whopping 74.6 points per game over their last five games as well. Opposing teams are shooting 53.5 percent from the field and 47.5 percent from 3-point range during this span. Draymond Green is about the only consistent player for the Spartans as he averages 13.2 points, 8.6 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.2 blocks per game.

Projected Score at BetOnline: Wisconsin 66 – Michigan State 57

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