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Michigan State Basketball: 3 bold predictions vs. suddenly-hot Minnesota

By Connor Muldowney

DES MOINES, IOWA - MARCH 23: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans shoots the ball against Michael Hurt #42 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the second half in the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena on March 23, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
DES MOINES, IOWA - MARCH 23: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans shoots the ball against Michael Hurt #42 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the second half in the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena on March 23, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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For the fourth time in the first five games to start the Big Ten season, Michigan State basketball will play host, this time to Minnesota.

Michigan State received a gift from the Big Ten scheduling committee this season as they were granted 4-of-5 home games to begin their conference slate. The fourth will take place on Thursday night as Minnesota comes to town.

The Gophers haven’t had the best start to the season with an 8-6 overall record, but they’ve been gaining steam with four wins in their past five games and it would have been five straight if not for an overtime loss at Purdue.

The Spartans, on the other hand, have been red-hot in recent weeks, winning seven straight games, including a 20-point win over Illinois and an 18-point win over Michigan. This is the team we expected to see at the start of the season and it seems like they’re just hitting their stride as the only undefeated team left in Big Ten play.

Will that change on Thursday night?

3. Marcus Bingham, Xavier Tillman shut down Daniel Oturu

Tom Izzo said in his weekly press conference that he and his staff recruited Daniel Oturu a little bit, but he wishes he did a better job.

While that may be true, he has a couple of pretty solid bigs of his own in the starting lineup and for the third straight game, they’ll play well and hold their own against one of the Big Ten’s elite big men. Marcus Bingham Jr. might be the better matchup with his length against Oturu and if that’s the case, I can see him playing as well as he did against Kofi Cockburn. He seems to have gained plenty of confidence from that matchup which he dominated.

Xavier Tillman, too, will get a chance to go up against Oturu and he, too, has been playing better defensively of late. He’ll come up big and help Bingham lock the Minnesota big man down.

Oturu may not be held in check quite like Cockburn was, but I’m going with a stat line of 10 points and six rebounds for him, about half of his normal production while also being in foul trouble.

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