Michigan State Basketball: 3 bold predictions for battle with Northwestern

1. Michigan State wins by 10-plus points

A common theme with these Spartans this season has been building big leads and looking like they’re just going to run away with blowout wins only to let the other team hang around and make things interesting in the end.

This happened with Louisville, Toledo, Minnesota (twice), Oakland, High Point, Penn State, and Nebraska. All of these games could have resulted in 20-plus point wins, but Michigan State has a tendency to coast when it builds that lead to at least 10, and that allows the opponents to believe they have a shot and make runs late.

I see Michigan State having one of its most complete games of the season on Saturday afternoon, jumping out to a comfortable lead early and then just holding onto that big advantage.

The Spartans will shoot nearly 50 percent from the floor and make eight 3-pointers to put the Wildcats behind early on and that will be it as they won’t be able to come back.

Boo Buie might get his buckets still, but the Spartans will bounce back defensively and shut the door on Northwestern early on.