If you’re a college basketball fan, Tuesday night should be thrilling. The Champions Classic is back, and the two games will take center stage in the college hoops world. The first game will be Michigan State vs Kentucky followed by Kansas vs Duke. Hoops fans are spoiled every year by this event.
The Spartans will face a really solid Kentucky team in Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night in the first game of an elite double-header, and it feels like this should be a good game.
Kentucky is 3-1 on the season with a lone loss coming against No. 12 Louisville on the road. It was a high-scoring rivalry game that ended in a Cardinals win, but Kentucky is good enough to beat just about anyone, although its three wins are Nicholls, Valparaiso, and Eastern Illinois.
Michigan State, on the other hand, has a win over No. 14 Arkansas to go along with victories over Colgate and San Jose State — the Spartans failed to cover the spread against both inferior opponents.
With that information in mind, the opening line for the Champions Classic matchup just makes sense.
Odds courtesy of DraftKings as of Nov. 17.
Line: Kentucky -5.5
Over/Under: 154.5
Moneyline: Kentucky -218 | Michigan State +180
If you’re a little surprised that Michigan State is an underdog despite being 3-0 and beating a top-15 team already while Kentucky lost its top-15 battle, you shouldn’t be.
Why? It feels like everyone is afraid to give Michigan State too much credit early on just because it can’t shoot the three. If Michigan State was a little better offensively, I think you’d see this game being more of a toss-up, but it’s over-valuing Kentucky and under-valuing the Spartans.
I think I like Michigan State to cover because Izzo always has his guys ready for the Champions Classic, and you just know he laid into his team after the San Jose State performance.
The team we saw in the second half won’t be taking the floor vs. Kentucky — we hope.