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Michigan State Basketball: 5 reasons the Spartans will beat Notre Dame

By Connor Muldowney

PORTLAND, OR - NOVEMBER 26: Andrew Platek #3 of the North Carolina Tar Heels and Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans go after a loose ball in the second half of the game during the PK80-Phil Knight Invitational presented by State Farm at the Moda Center on November 26, 2017 in Portland, Oregon. Michigan State won the game 63-45. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - NOVEMBER 26: Andrew Platek #3 of the North Carolina Tar Heels and Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans go after a loose ball in the second half of the game during the PK80-Phil Knight Invitational presented by State Farm at the Moda Center on November 26, 2017 in Portland, Oregon. Michigan State won the game 63-45. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /
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Michigan State basketball will get a matchup with No. 5 Notre Dame on Thursday night in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. Here’s why the Spartans will win.

After arguably its best overall performance of the season, Michigan State is gearing up to face the nation’s No. 5 team on Thursday night. Notre Dame presents a tough challenge for the Spartans, but it could be another resume-builder for Michigan State before it heads into conference play.

That will be necessary seeing as the conference looks to be down this season, falling behind 10-2 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge to this point. Michigan State is one of the Big Ten’s last hopes for another victory and beating a top-tier ACC team would be a major deal.

Michigan State should beat Notre Dame in the seventh game of the year and here’s why.

5. Rebounding favors Michigan State

Let’s face it, outside of Bonzie Colson, rebounding is not the strength of Notre Dame. The national player of the year candidate is averaging 10.5 boards per game, but the rest of the team, combined, averages about 27 rebounds per contest.

The top rebounder outside of Colson is Rex Pflueger who grabs five per game and Martinas Geben averages 4.8. Outside of those two guys, and Colson, no one on the team averages more than 3.2 rebounds per game. That’s not a good sign for the Irish as they head into East Lansing to face team that averages 42 rebounds per game.

Michigan State has the clear advantage on the glass with guys like Miles Bridges, Jaren Jackson Jr., Nick Ward, Ben Carter, Xavier Tillman and Gavin Schilling. The Fighting Irish are going to have a difficult time trying to corral the boards against that depth in the post.

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