Thursday’s Michigan State vs Toledo game will be the final opportunity for the Spartans to tune things up with Duke on deck.
The Rockets are coming to the Breslin Center off a season-opening one-point road loss to Arkansas State where the Red Wolves hit just 10-of-23 free throws to make it closer than it needed to be. Toledo will now face its biggest test of the season against a motivated Michigan State team trying to prove that its exhibition showing was a fluke.
Michigan State comes in at 1-0 after beating Quinnipiac by nearly 40 points on Monday, and that was without a single player scoring over 12 points and Jasiah Jervis was held to just four.
The balanced scoring attack was nice to see and Vegas clearly liked it because the odds for Thursday’s Toledo game are, well, lopsided, to say the least.
Note: Odds via DraftKings as of Thursday, Nov. 5.
Line: Michigan State -26.5
Over/Under: 155.5
Moneyline: Michigan State -9000 | Toledo +2500
Toledo’s not being given much of a chance to pull off the upset against a team that might be looking ahead to a showdown against the No. 2 team in the country next week.
With a line that lopsided, Michigan State should probably be able to take care of business without a ton of pushback, but these MAC teams can be tricky every now and then. The Spartans have struggled a bit with Bowling Green over the past few years, just in case we all forgot. Tom Izzo and his guys just need to lock in, and I trust that they will.
Predicting Michigan State vs Toledo
Toledo just doesn’t have the horses to keep up with Michigan State. They hit 6-of-27 threes and were shooting under 40 percent from the field against Arkansas State and the Spartans have had one of the nation’s top defenses for years. This could get ugly.
If the big three of Jaylan Ouwinga, Mynor Strong, and Angel Montas Jr. don’t all play well at the same time, the Rockets won’t have a fighting chance to cover, let alone win.
Michigan State should take care of business and avoid a letdown game ahead of the Duke battle on Nov. 10. The Spartans won’t cover the spread, but they will come close and it’ll take the deep bench coming in for Toledo to cover.
Kaleb Glenn has himself a nice game, Jeremy Fears is going to go off, and Jesse McCulloch will score 10-plus in his season debut as the Spartans mop the floor with the Rockets.
Final score: Toledo 75, Michigan State 100
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