Minnesota vs. Michigan State Bracket Prediction: March Madness Odds
It’s an All-Big Ten matchup in the East Region on Saturday in the NCAA Tournament from Des Moines, Iowa, as No. 10 Minnesota and No. 2 Michigan State square off with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line.
Minnesota (10) vs. Michigan State (2) NCAA Tournament Point Spread and Betting
The NCAA Tournament selection committee tries to avoid regular-season rematches in the Big Dance at least until the Sweet 16, but that’s not always doable. The Big Ten got a national-best eight teams into the 2019 tournament but will lose one of them on Saturday in East Region play with Minnesota facing Michigan State. This will be the earliest two Big Ten teams have ever met in the NCAA Tournament.
These schools played once this regular season, on Feb. 9 in East Lansing. Then-No. 9 MSU was a 13.5-point favourite and rolled to a 79-55 victory. That was the day Michigan State celebrated the 40th anniversary of its 1979 title team led by Magic Johnson, who was in attendance. It seemed to fire up the current Spartans. They were led by Nick Ward’s 22 points and Matt McQuaid’s 18. Big Ten Player of the Year Cassius Winston had 11 points and nine assists without a turnover for Sparty.
Minnesota’s best two players, Jordan Murphy and Amir Coffey, combined for just nine points on 3-for-10 shooting. Gabe Kalscheur led the Gophers with 17 points.
Michigan State has covered four of the past five in the series. The winner faces either No. 3 LSU or No. 6 Maryland (another Big Ten school).
Minnesota Golden Gophers
The Gophers were 5-point underdogs against No. 7 Louisville on Thursday but won 86-76 to reach the second round for the first time since 2013. Minnesota was one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the nation during the season in terms of makes per game (only 5.2) but hit 11 from deep vs. the Cardinals. All five starters scored in double figures – no bench player scored at all – led by Kalscheur’s 24. Murphy and Coffey each had 18 points and six rebounds. Coffey played every single minute. Murphy said after the win that his back locked up during the game but that there’s zero chance it would keep him out Saturday.
Michigan State Spartans
The last No. 2 seed to lose to a No. 15 in the first round was Michigan State in 2016. For a while on Thursday, it looked like it might happen again for the Spartans, this time vs. Bradley. There were 18 lead changes in the game and Michigan State found itself trailing with under seven minutes to go, but Tom Izzo’s team pulled away late for a 76-65 victory. MSU didn’t even take a lead as big as eight points until less than three minutes remained. Winston carried the load as usual with 26 points, while Xavier Tillman had 16 points and 11 rebounds. The Spartans hit just 5-for-19 from deep but were 25-for-26 (96.2 per cent was best in school history in an NCAA Tournament game) from the charity stripe. Izzo is now 17-5 in the Round of 64 in his Hall of Fame career.
