Michigan State Basketball: Staff score predictions vs. Louisiana-Monroe
Hosting Louisiana-Monroe on Wednesday evening, Michigan State basketball is looking to piece together its first win streak of the 2018-19 season.
Looking to put together its first win streak of the season, Michigan State will host a 2-1 Louisiana-Monroe team on Wednesday evening, fresh off its first loss of the season at Texas.
The Warhawks will be contenders in the Sun Belt this season and there’s reason to believe they’ll give the Spartans a tough test. Beating Louisiana-Monroe won’t be easy, but Michigan State is a 25-point favorite and this is a good chance to work on defense.
Tom Izzo wasn’t happy with his team’s performance on that end in their first win of the season on Sunday but will that improve on Wednesday?
Connor Muldowney: Michigan State’s defense is going to see a complete 180 turnaround against the Warhawks, but not before Travis Munnings goes off for 20 points. He’ll give the Spartans their toughest test on the night, but Nick Ward will counter his production from the post with 19 points and 12 rebounds of his own. Xavier Tillman, too, will have a coming out party, of sorts, and Cassius Winston will reach 20 points for the fourth time in his career as the Spartans almost cover the spread.
Final Score: ULM 64, Michigan State 87
Stephen Robb: MSU takes on UL-Monroe Warhawks Wednesday night and they have an experienced team lead by senior a forward Trey Munnings — he lights up the 3-pointer if left open. ULM pushed Texas in their season opener. MSU will have to come out like they did against FGCU.
Final Score: ULM 63, Michigan State 75
Ryan Kay: Sometimes you need to ponder certain things when predicting the outcome of an early college basketball game in November. One is that it is early in the season and you can’t under or overact to what opponents have done in terms of their play against inferior and superior opponents. UL-Monroe beat a Division III school and played well against a power conference school on the road.
In the game against the DIII school, the Warhawks were down 30-29 in the first half before going up seven at the half and dominated the rest of the game. Against Texas on the road without their leading scorer Daishon Smith, UL-Monroe was only down one point and half and tied the game at 43 a piece before losing by 10.
With all that being said, I believe Texas will struggle in Big 12 play this season and I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on UL-Monroe’s close game against them. If Smith can’t play due to his reported hamstring injury, this may be a very easy victory for the Spartans.
I do like the name Warhawks as a nickname of UL-Monroe but Tom Izzo appears to be motivated to work on Michigan State’s defense this game and with the combination of a powerful Spartan offense that has been on display so far this season — I see once again like last game a lot of players from Michigan State’s bench playing this game.
The Warhawks do not shoot well from three and even though they play well on defense, expect a 20-plus point victory for the Spartans.
Final Score: ULM 67, Michigan State 89
Next. MSU basketball: 10 bold predictions for 2018-19. dark
Justin Thind: ULM comes to town with a tough, defense-first philosophy. It allows opponents to shoot only 37 percent while only allowing 61 points per game. This should be interesting to see as Michigan State is averaging 96.5 points, while scoring more than 50 in a half against Kansas. If they were able to do that, the Spartans shouldn’t have too much trouble scoring this game as ULM is no Kansas. Plus, ULM doesn’t exactly have the strongest offense.
Final Score: ULM 62, Michigan State 89