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The Indiana Hoosiers travel to the Breslin Center to take on the Michigan State Spartans. Indiana blew out Michigan State earlier in the season. This game may look very different with the Spartans at home, and a healthy Malik Hall playing for the Spartans.
Game Time: Tuesday, February 21st, at 9:00pm(US East Coast Time)
Watch the game: ESPN
Comment and Follow Live at the GAME THREAD HERE (live at 7pm)
Some basics to sound like a pro:
Michigan State:
Michigan State still has all the tantalizing upside they’ve had all season. The problem is all that upside is being lost as the team seems to be searching for their collective identity. Late February is not an ideal time to still be searching.
The Spartans will benefit from having a relatively healthy Malik Hall. Hall is probably the best matchup MSU has against Trayce Jackson-Davis. Not having Hall in their last game clearly hurt the Spartans.
If Michigan State can utilize Hall as an effective counter to Trayce Jackson-Davis, there is hope that Hauser, Walker and Hoggard could provide enough of a spark win. While Indiana is playing great basketball right now, they lack a true big man, meaning with Hall MSU matches up better against Indiana than many other teams.
It will still take a collective effort to close out a game against the Hoosiers.
Indiana University:
The Indiana Hoosiers come to Breslin as one of the hottest teams in the Big Ten. Their 10-6 record looks worse than the team actually is now. After some early struggles in Big Ten Play, Indiana has won four of their last five games, and nine of their previous eleven games.
The Hoosiers are led by versatile big man Trayce Jackson-Davis. Jackson-Davis was dominant in the last matchup against MSU, scoring 31 points, pulling down 15 rebounds, dishing out 4 assists, and blocking 5 shots.
MSU went into the last game seemingly content to let Trayce Jackson-Davis do whatever he wanted, the plan seemed to be to limit anyone else on Indiana’s roster. The plan did not work. Trey Galloway and Tamar Bates had breakout performances for the Hoosiers and each scored 17 points.
Michigan State will need to find a way to limit Trayce Jackson-Davis and find the defensive edge that has been missing in some recent games (particularly at Michigan).
Predictions:
BBD: 72-65 Indiana Win
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