For the second time in four days, Michigan State will face a Quad 1 opportunity. Tuesday night's Michigan State vs. Purdue game is not only an opportunity for both teams to snap out of cold streaks but to also build that NCAA Tournament resume and move closer to that elusive Big Ten title.
Purdue has lost two straight games to Michigan and Wisconsin and is looking to end this losing streak in East Lansing and stay afloat in the Big Ten title race.
Michigan State has lost three of its last five games, dropping its last home contest to a struggling Indiana team that turned around and lost at home to UCLA the next game. The Spartans, on the other hand, bounced back to win in Champaign and improve to 20-5 on the season and 11-3 in the conference. A victory on Tuesday for Michigan State would be massive.
Braden Smith and the Boilermakers aren't just going to roll over and let it happen, however.
Vegas thinks this game is going to be close. According to DraftKings, the spread is almost a pick 'em and a decent amount of points are expected. The spread makes total sense given each team's situation.
Spread: Michigan State -3.5
Over/Under: 148.5
Moneyline: Michigan State -166 | Purdue +140
This is almost as close as it gets and this means that Vegas almost sees this as a toss-up. If this game were played on a neutral court, it would most likely be a pick 'em and if it was in West Lafayette, the spread would be similar, just flipped, but we all know what would happen at Mackey.
But what do I think of this spread? I think it's pretty accurate. I actually think Purdue covers, but Michigan State wins another classic, 76-74.