Feast Week is here for college hoops fans, and Tuesday afternoon’s Michigan State vs East Carolina game will kick off the Fort Myers Tip-Off down in Florida.
This is the first time Michigan State will participate in the event, and it’ll kick things off with one of the worst teams that it’s going to see for the remainder of the season. East Carolina is 2-3 on the year with three double-digit losses and tight wins over Elizabeth City State and Georgia Southern. This team has yet to face a squad like Michigan State.
The Spartans, on the other hand, are coming off a 28-point win over Detroit Mercy last Friday, and before that, they beat No. 12 Kentucky by 17. It feels like Tom Izzo has his squad rolling, but they will have a tough week ahead as No. 16 North Carolina awaits on Thanksgiving Day.
East Carolina will be a nice warm-up game for the Spartans, who are heavy favorites. The Pirates don’t stand out on the stat sheet as Michigan State is better in just about every category.
While this should be a blowout, Michigan State is 0-3 against the spread versus unranked teams this season, and it always seems like the Spartans play down to their competition.
What does the spread ahead of Tuesday afternoon’s matchup tell us?
Odds courtesy of DraftKings as of Tuesday, Nov. 25.
Line: Michigan State -20.5
Over/Under: 140.5
Moneyline: Michigan State -4500 | East Carolina +1700
While Michigan State should win this one by a landslide, anything can happen in college basketball, and we’ve seen crazy things during Feast Week — that loss to Boston College when Cassius Winston was a senior still haunts me.
However, I see Michigan State controlling this one from start to finish. If you can believe it, East Carolina is an even worse 3-point shooting team than Michigan State, making just about 21 percent of its shots from deep. The Pirates are also an average rebounding team and don’t pass the ball nearly as well as the Spartans. Defensively, the Spartans reign supreme as well.
Michigan State will get out to a small lead and then build it to 15 by the half. The second half will be much more of the same as I see the Spartans winning by around 25, covering the spread.
Prediction: East Carolina 57, Michigan State 82