While there was heartbreak on the ice on Thursday night, Michigan State basketball is trying to take fans' minds off of that with a deeper run in the NCAA Tournament.
The Spartans beat New Mexico on Sunday to make the Sweet 16 and Ole Miss smashed Iowa State to earn this matchup with Michigan State. This matchup between the two schools may not seem all that familiar, but Chris Beard is the coach who eliminated Tom Izzo and Michigan State from the NCAA Tournament in the Final Four back in 2019.
We haven't forgotten.
Izzo is going to have to coach one of his best games of the season in order to beat Beard and the Rebels and I think he can do it.
Let's get bold.
1. Jase Richardson scores 25
While Ole Miss is no slouch defensively, I think the Rebels are going to have a difficult time trying to guard Jase Richardson, especially after his worst game as a Spartan against New Mexico. He scored six points and was truly just non-existent for most of the game, shooting 1-for-10 from the field.
On Friday, he's going off. He'll finish with 25 points, leading all scorers, to go along with four boards and three assists while shooting well over 50 percent from the floor and hitting 3-of-6 from deep.
Will this be enough, though?
2. Michigan State out-duels Ole Miss from deep
In their last game, the Rebels got red-hot from 3-point range and that could be a problem for a Michigan State team that has been hovering around 30 percent as a team all year. On Friday, though, that's not going to be the case.
The Spartans have shot the ball much better as of late and that's going to continue into Friday night's game, making around 45 percent of their threes compared to just under 30 percent from the Rebels.
Michigan State will out-duel Ole Miss from deep which no one will see coming.
3. Michigan State wins by 10
The slimmest spread of any of the games on Friday is Michigan State vs. Ole Miss and while it makes sense because the Rebels have been playing really well and the Spartans struggled a bit against New Mexico, I just feel like we're going to see a motivated team get hot.
Michigan State faced a talented rising SEC team back in the 2019 Sweet 16 and demolished them so I'm just going to say the same happens here.
The game will be very tight for the first half and the start of the second, but Michigan State will do its best boa constrictor impression and squeeze the life out of the Rebels thanks to its depth and bench scoring. It'll wear the Rebels down, winning by 10-plus and covering the spread.