Michigan State basketball staring at familiar foe with Sweet 16 on the line

Michigan State basketball is getting set to face a familiar foe on Saturday evening against Minnesota, but can the Spartans advance?

Michigan State eked out a win in the first round against the Bradley Braves from Peoria, Ill, and now they move on to the round of 32 to take on Big Ten foe Minnesota. The Spartans squared off against the Golden Gophers earlier this year and were able to run away with a 79-55 win.

The Spartans will be looking to bounce back from an ugly victory over Bradley and they will need to work on and improve some things if they want to advance out of the first weekend for the first time in three years.

They will need to continue to work on their turnovers. They did a nice job with only committing nine in the game against Bradley but they need to replicate that if they want to win against Minnesota.

The defense will need to improve as well. The Spartans will have their hands full trying to slow down a hot-handed Amir Coffey and Jordan Murphy. They were the driving force in getting the upset win against Louisville. Both had 18 points and the energy to hold the lead.

Minnesota will try to get revenge for that devastating loss against Michigan State earlier this year. They will be trying to keep Cassius Winston tame as he has been putting the team on his back when they are in need of points and energy. Jordan Murphy will also have his work cut out playing against a striving Xavier Tillman and Nick Ward.

Here’s how you can watch Saturday evening’s game against Minnesota:

Date: Saturday, March 23
Time: 7:45 p.m. ET
Location: Des Moines, Iowa
Venue: Wells Fargo Arena
TV: CBS
Live Stream: CBS Sports Live or March Madness Live

Players to Watch

Some players you know well like Cassius Winston and Jordan Murphy or Amir Coffey are always great players to keep your eyes on but there are others that we will highlight in this post.

Kenny Goins: The play of Kenny Goins will be a key thing to watch in this game. How will he respond to having an awful shooting performance over his last two games?

Goins has gone ice-cold and hasn’t been a help on the offensive side at all. He took seven 3-point shots in the game against Bradley and missed all of them — he’s not acting as the senior MSU needs him to be. In fact, in the last two games Goins has shot 1-for-16 from the floor and 0-for-11 from long range.

To make things worse, he has not seen the ball go through the hoop from long distance since 9:11 left in the semifinal game against Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament. That’s a total of 89:11 minutes without seeing a 3-point make.

This needs to change and we need Goins to find his improved stroke and be the surprising offensive player he has become in order to win this game against Minnesota.

Gabe Kalschuer: Minnesota will obviously rely on the play of Jordan Murphy and Amir Coffey but it will be the play of Gabe Kalschuer — he could be the difference-maker in this one.

Kalschuer is a freshman who has not been mentioned much but he’s averaging 10.3 points per game along with two boards. He is a consistently player who has been shooting over 40 percent from the field.

In his last game against Michigan State, he shot 4-for-10 for 17 points with three of those makes from beyond the arc. The Spartans will need to work to not give him open looks because he can drill shots when given the chance. Against Louisville, he was the game’s leading scorer with 24 points and he shot 8-for-15 with 5 of those being behind the 3-point line.

MSU will need to make sure they are up on Kalschuer so he cannot get open looks and shots to keep Minnesota in it.

Prediction

Michigan State will come out of the gate swinging. They have something to prove after that pathetic defense stand and overall game play against a 15-seed in Bradley. Michigan State’s Cassius Winston will of course put the team on his back throughout this game but he will find Kenny Goins at the top of the key multiple times in this game.

Goins will shoot 3-for-5 from long range as well. This will be a back-and-forth contest but in the end, the Spartans will show why they won the Big Ten regular season tournament title. This Michigan State team will bounce back and win by 13 with a final score of 76-63.

Prediction: Minnesota 63, Michigan State 76