After Saturday afternoon’s bracket preview, Tom Izzo got a good idea of what needs to be done to crawl out of that 4-seed line. Ideally, the Spartans would be a 2/3-seed but the NCAA currently has them as the 14th-best team in the country right now. Winning Sunday’s Michigan State vs Ohio State game would be a nice start to an end-of-season run.
Michigan State has been slumping a little lately, but beating UCLA by 23 points may have turned it back in the right direction. The Spartans had lost 3-of-4 games before beating the Bruins, dropping them from a projected 2-seed to a 4-seed.
That’s where they currently stand.
Ohio State, on the other hand, is looking to make the NCAA Tournament field. The Buckeyes need a strong finish to the regular season if they’re going to be dancing next month. They’re right on the bubble and a win over Michigan State would be just what their resume needs.
The Spartans need to maintain that momentum that they built from the UCLA win on Sunday against Ohio State. Losing this game is not an option if they want to remain in the top-four seed range.
Vegas’ line is very unsurprising.
Opening odds for Michigan State vs Ohio State
Ohio State comes to East Lansing having not won two straight games in over a month and the Spartans just beat the last tourney-hopeful team that came to the Breslin Center by 23 points.
The opening odds make sense.
Odds via DraftKings as of Saturday, Feb. 21
Line: Michigan State -9.5
Over/Under: 147.5
Moneyline: Not available yet
Michigan State is expected to win this game, but I get how the line isn’t completely lopsided because Ohio State has a talented team and they won in East Lansing in upset fashion just two years ago.
Tom Izzo probably still wants that game back — the trajectory of Ohio State may have actually changed because of that upset win over Michigan State. The Buckeyes promoted Jake Diebler to full-time head coach and missed out on some elite options that offseason like Dusty May. Crazy how different things may have looked if Michigan State won that game.
The Spartans should win this one, but Bruce Thornton always seems to give them trouble.