Michigan State Basketball: 3 bold predictions for road battle at Rutgers

Michigan State basketball will face a pesky Rutgers team on Saturday evening and here’s what I think might happen in this road battle.

For the fourth time in the past six games, Michigan State basketball played a game that was decided by two points or less. The Spartans escaped an upset on the road against Maryland after blowing a 15-point second-half lead thanks to a Malik Hall layup with 1.9 seconds left.

The Spartans now head to Piscataway with a little confidence after winning in a hostile environment but Jersey Mike’s Arena isn’t going to be any less daunting.

Rutgers (12-9, 6-5) isn’t exactly setting the world on fire this year, but the Spartans have to be wary of Ron Harper Jr., Geo Baker, and Clifford Omoruyi. This won’t be an easy win.

Will the Spartans take care of a pesky Rutgers team in Piscataway on Saturday?

3. Michigan State shoots over 40 percent from deep

The past two road games have been nightmarish, for the most part, when it pertains to 3-point shooting. The Spartans shot about 36 percent from 3-point range against Maryland which isn’t bad, but they started extremely slow. They shot about 24 percent from deep against Illinois which led to the one-point loss in Champaign.

We’ll see a bit of a pivot here as the Spartans will get hot from deep early on and carry that over into a 40-plus percent shooting day from distance.

Guys like Max Christie, Malik Hall, Tyson Walker, Jaden Akins, Joey Hauser, and even Gabe Brown will get hot in this one and it’ll lead to a hot shooting day from the Spartans. When these guys are all making shots, Michigan State is incredibly tough to beat.

No slow start here in Piscataway.