Weekly Preview: Minnesota and Illinois

This upcoming week is huge for the Michigan State basketball team as they have a chance to get into 3rd place in the B10 standings by going 2-0 this week. Any and every college basketball broadcast that you watch talks about how difficult it is to win on the road and that is something the Spartans will need to do tomorrow night going into “the barn” at University of Minnesota. Minnesota, like many college basketball teams are much better on their home court. The Gophers come into this game with a 12-3 record at home but a 2-5 record away from home, one of these losses being to the Spartans in East Lansing by 10 points. The Gophers are lead by Forward, Dawson Garcia and Guard, Elijah Hawkins. Hawkins is currently 1st in the Big 10 in assists per game and 2nd in the entire country. The Spartans will have their work cut out for them with the pick and roll that the Gophers run with Garcia and Hawkins. On Saturday, MSU struggled defending the high pick and roll from Maryland between Donta Smith and Julian Reese. The Gophers also have the brother of former Michigan State Spartan and current Los Angeles Laker, Max Christie: Cam Christie. Christie is a great 3 point shooter who will most likely be guarded by our best defender, Jaden Akins. To win this game the Spartans are going to need to need to defend the 3 point line very well. This is something the Spartans have been great at all season as they are 1st in 3 point % allowed in the B10. The number one thing Michigan State cannot do is getting down early. Getting down early on the road is pretty much a death sentence in the B10. It is tough to sweep an opponent in B10 play but I liked enough of what I saw in the last few minutes of the game Saturday to pick MSU tomorrow. I think it will be a wire to wire game and MSU wins by a bucket. Fingers crossed.

The second game for the Spartans this week falls in East Lansing, Saturday @ 2PM in the Breslin against the 10th ranked team in the nation, the Illinois Fighting Illini. We are about 1 month out from the conference tourney and Michigan State only has one “quad 1” victory so far which came in a dominant performance against Baylor earlier in the year. The Spartans have fell close a numerous amount of times this year to top teams. MSU had a lead against Arizona, Duke, and @ Illinois when they played but the Spartans could not close the game out. This time the game is at The Breslin Center and I know the student section known as the Izzone will be fired up. Now I do not want to overreact and call this game a must win, but it is as close to that as possible. So let’s get into it: Illinois is coming into this game at 17-5 and the owners of 2nd place in the B10 standings. The Fighting Illini have a very impressive resume with 3 of their losses being to top 15 teams in Marquette, Tennessee, and Purdue. Illinois is led by star player Terrance Shannon Jr. Recently, Shannon Jr. has been charged with rape. The case is still active and the judge has allowed him to continue playing. Asides from Shannon, Illinois is still a very very talented offensive team. They rank at the top of the Big 10 in almost every offensive statistic and are the #3 team in the nation in KENPOM’s adjusted offensive efficiency. For anyone who doesn’t know, KENPOM is based on a number of advanced stats used to calculate team’s adjusted efficiency margin. Another player to watch on Illinois is Guard, Marcus Domask. Although he is a guard, Domask does everything on the court for Illinois. He leads the team in assists, is 2nd in points per game, and 4th in rebounding. Since 2020 the Spartans are 2-1 at home against Illinois and look to add another win in a huge matchup. If I have learned one thing about Michigan State Basketball and Tom Izzo it is to never count them out, especially when it doesn’t look great. I am taking the Spartans to win this game at home because they pretty much HAVE to. The game is already sold out and it will be nationally televised on CBS at 2PM EST.