It’s early in the Big Ten season but the Michigan state Spartans are sitting at the bottom of the standings after losing their first three league games. To say they are in desperate need of a victory would be an understatement. Considering how stacked the conference is it might be tough for the Spartans to make up ground. They could get a jolt of confidence by knocking off the Rutgers Scarlet Knights when the teams get together on Tuesday. Rutgers is perched near the top of the standings having won seven of its first eight games.
The game will air live on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, January 5, 2021 from the Breslin Center in East Lansing, MI. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Tuesday schedule.
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Rutgers Scarlet Knights (Check Back Later)
Michigan State Spartans (Check Back Later)
Over/Under (Check Back Later)
Odds Analysis
Taking down No. 13 Illinois was the highlight of Rutgers’ season-opening six-game winning streak. The run ended at Ohio State when the Knights were subdued 80-68. They responded with an 81-76 payout win over Purdue going 4-1 ATS in their last five games. Overall Rutgers is 7-1 SU and 4-3-1 ATS. They played over the closing total in their last three games and the OVER is 6-1-1 on the season. Jumping into league play has been a shock to the Spartans. They were 6-0 in nonconference games with a big win at Duke where they were catching 4-points on the closing line. That was MSU’s last cover win. The Spartans are 0-6 ATS since then giving points in every game.
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Rutgers won seven of its first eight games playing without its entire roster. So imagine how good they’ll be when everybody is back healthy. The latest to go down is leading scorer Ron Harper Jr., who missed the Purdue game after injuring his ankle. The Knights have become well accustomed to the next-man-up mentality and they’ve thrived because of it.
Harper could be back for the matchup with Sparty, which would help Rutgers end a 10-game losing streak in the series. Harper is one of the best small forwards in the country and was off to a great start averaging 23.4 points on 56.4 percent shooting. He also has 7.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. Montez Mathis got the start in place of Harper scoring 25 points in the 81-76 victory.
Dealing with injures through a difficult part of the schedule will tell us a lot about the Scarlett Knights. This is the middle game of a three-game stretch against ranked foes. The run ends with a matchup against No. 25 Ohio State, which handed Rutgers its first loss of the season a week ago. Jacob Young, who averages 15.5 points, and Geo Baker recently returned giving the Knights a big part of its roster back.
Michigan State Spartans
Enduring a slump, even a minor one, in the stacked Big Ten will lead to big problems. You can ask Tom Izzo and the Spartans about that. There will be a matchup between nationally ranked teams nearly every night with nine squads ranked in the latest AP poll. The way Michigan State is going they’ll be out of the rankings soon. An 81-56 loss at Minnesota last week was Sparty’s third straight to open league play. It’s the first time in nearly two decades they opened conference with three consecutive defeats.
What’s more disturbing is that none of the games were that close. MSU’s six-game winning streak ended with a 79-65 loss at Northwestern. The skid reached two with a 9-point home setback to Wisconsin. And the Spartans didn’t even put up a fight against the Golden Gophers. They scored just 16 first half points and shot 27.5 percent from the field for the game. “We don’t have great leadership. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s just hard to find one of those alpha dogs. I’ve had four or five of them in my whole career,” Izzo said.
The good news is that the Spartans can’t be any worse than they were in that game. The overall numbers aren’t bad. MSU shoots shoots 44.4 percent from the field and averages 78.4 points, so they should at least be better.
Rutgers at Michigan State Prediction
Rutgers has never beaten Michigan State and I don’t think the Spartans can play much worse than they have during this opening stretch of Big Ten games. Still, this is the perfect time for the Scarlet Knights to end the skid. Getting key players back in the lineup will allow Rutgers to take advantage of a weakened and vulnerable group.
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