Michigan State basketball<\/a> returns to action this time in postseason play as they begin its Big Ten Tournament campaign in the second round against Minnesota. The Spartans split their regular season contests with Minnesota this year, so they\u2019re looking to get the series win over the Gophers now.<\/p>\nOh yeah, MSU\u2019s also looking to lock itself into the NCAA Tournament as well.<\/p>\n
A lot is on the line in this game, so let\u2019s hope all three of these bold predictions come true.<\/p>\n
1. Spartans win the rebounding battle<\/h3>\n
This not only is a massive key in this game, but it\u2019s also a bold prediction in my eyes. In the first two games, Minnesota out rebounded MSU by three each time. The Gophers are also No. 114 in the country in rebounding margin at +2.4. That may not sound great, but it certainly isn\u2019t bad when compared to the Spartans.<\/p>\n
Michigan State is the No. 185 team in the country with a +0.7 rebounding margin. Put all that together and Minnesota is the favorite to come out on top on the glass.<\/p>\n
However, I think MSU will get it done this time around. The Spartans have slowly but surely improved on the glass, and I think they\u2019ll show that again in this game. If Michigan State does win the battle on the glass, I think its chances of winning skyrocket.<\/p>\n
2. AJ Hoggard finishes with 15 points and 7 assists<\/h3>\n
AJ Hoggard is someone who has been struggling for Michigan State recently. But I think it\u2019s time for him to finally get back to being the AJ we know he can be. Hoggard tends to have issues concentrating and getting ready to play in games, but I don\u2019t think he\u2019ll have those issues in the postseason. Especially considering MSU may need this win to get into the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n
Hoggard. however, hasn’t hit these stats in quite some time. He\u2019s only scored 15 points once in his last seven games and hasn\u2019t recorded seven assists since Feb. 3. AJ\u2019s also only hit this stat line once this year as well.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a question of if he can do this, it\u2019s more of an if he will. And I think AJ is ready to burst onto the scene and help lead Michigan State to a big win.<\/p>\n
3. The outcome of the game will never be in doubt<\/h3>\n
Maybe this is just me hoping for a calm, relaxing game as I watch it in the office, but I really think Michigan State could cruise to a victory. Maybe they won\u2019t win by a large margin, but I think the result of the game will never be up in the air.<\/p>\n
I think MSU will get off to a fast start (which is a borderline bold prediction on its own) and never let Minnesota get too close. In the first two meetings against the Gophers, MSU had around a 10-point lead halfway through the second halves. But in both games they let Minnesota creep back in and even win one of them. I don\u2019t see that happening this time.<\/p>\n
I think Michigan State will have a similar lead this time, but cruise to a victory and guarantee their spot in the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Will the Spartans punch their ticket?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":15238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[217,190,189,504],"class_list":["post-16077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","tag-aj-hoggard","tag-michigan-state-basketball","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}