Michigan State Basketball: 3 bold predictions for sneaky Michigan game

1. Michigan State leads the entire way, wins a close one

The Spartans are going to race off to a comfortable lead in the early minutes with a much cleaner effort on the offensive side of the ball and some lockdown defense.

Michigan State will jump out to a 12-5 lead before Michigan comes back and keeps it within a couple of scores throughout. The Spartans will extend their lead to 8-10 at certain points but Michigan will just hang around. We’re going to see one of the Wolverines’ best overall efforts of the season because, well, Juwan Howard will have them up for this rivalry game.

Tom Izzo takes this rivalry very seriously and even hit the media with a “if you think this Michigan team isn’t good, you’re crazy” quote this week which just shows that he won’t be taking the Wolverines lightly. He’s a genius for saying that to the media this week.

Holding a lead is something Michigan State has done against teams that it should beat and Michigan falls under that category. They’ll hold a lead but things will get interesting late.

The Wolverines will make the Spartans sweat out another win late, keeping this one within a possession until the final buzzer.