Playing at home is a great advantage, especially in College Basketball. That is what the Spartans get to do this week after a 2-0 week on the road. I have seen people trying to discredit the Spartans’ wins last week but winning on the road is a real challenge in this league. The Spartans sit at 17-9 on the season and 9-6 in conference play which is tied with Northwestern who they do face in East Lansing next month.
On Tuesday night the Iowa Hawkeyes will come into the Breslin Center desperate for a win. Iowa is sitting at 15-11 and 7-8 in conference play. The Hawkeyes have struggled with consistency this season. The team coached by Fran McCaffery has shown they can play with top teams as they are coming off a win vs Wisconsin in OT in their last game on Saturday. I am not a fan of McCaffery. In my opinion he comes off as arrogant and rude to referees. But, Iowa has always been a great offensive team under McCaffery, including this year as they are number 10 in the nation in points per game at 83.7. While there is no denying Iowa’s elite offense, their defense is a much different story. The Hawkeyes rank 324 out of 362 Division 1 basketball teams in points allowed per game at 78.3. Michigan State on the other hand is almost an opposite of Iowa. The Spartans carry one of the best defenses in the nation into this game allowing 65.8 points per game which is #27 in the nation. The Spartans defense is even better at home where they allow 61.9 points per game. The disparity between offense and defense isn’t as bad for MSU. Tom Izzo’s squad is 112th in the nation in scoring averaging 75.2 points per game. Like I said earlier Iowa hasn’t found the consistency but they are balanced and can play with anyone. They have 4 players who average double digits, one of them being 8 time Big 10 Freshman of the week Owen Freeman. The Hawkeyes leading scorer is Junior, Payton Sandfort who is an elite 3 point shooter shooting just under 38%. After giving up over 50% on 3s to Penn State the Spartans locked in and only allowed Michigan to make 2 of 14 threes on Saturday night. The Hawkeyes can heat up in a second so MSU will have to guard that 3 point line well. I am a bit worried about how MSU will attempt to guard the skilled big men of Iowa. Iowa’s big men, especially Ben Krikke can put the ball on the floor and also pass. Spartan Center Mady Sissoko has struggled greatly in defending without fouling. On Saturday against Michigan Sissoko picked up 2 early fouls and Tom Izzo did not play him the rest of the game. He played 7 minutes. Now it has been very obvious that Spartan star Tyson Walker has been playing through injury but he’s gonna have to have that mamba mentality vs Iowa. No one on Iowa can come remotely close to guarding Tyson. Honestly I would not be shocked if Iowa runs a zone on Tuesday. Walker led the Spartans with 19 points on Saturday but only shot 6-16 and 1-5 from 3. Being at home is big for MSU because we don’t want a repeat of last season at Iowa when they blew a 10 point lead in the final minute. The arena will be electric on Tuesday night as the Spartans look to continue their win streak. I am expecting another Michigan State win because I think MSU will be able to get more stops at the end of the day. The game is a Peacock exclusive so I guess I will be downloading that along with many others.
Now it’s time to talk about those Buckeyes from Columbus. It has been a very odd season for Ohio State. They started off their season 12-2 and this included wins against #21 Alabama as well as UCLA and West Virginia. Since their 12-2 start the Buckeyes have fallen off tremendously. They have struggled in conference play and sit at 15-11 on the season with a 5-10 record in conference play. On February 14th Ohio State fired Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Chris Holtmann. Holtmann had success at Ohio State these past few years but as their season was coming crashing down it was obvious the team needed change. This has proved to be very true so far as the Buckeyes defeated #2 Purdue in their first game under interim coach Jake Diebler, who was an assistant under Holtmann. The Buckeyes will play Thursday night in Minnesota against the Golden Gophers before traveling to East Lansing for the game Sunday. Ohio State is not great at anything but they’re also not terrible at anything. They rank 134th in points per game with 74.4 and 102nd in points allowed per game with 69.7. The Buckeyes are carried by a big 3 of Bruce Thornton, Jamison Battle, and Roddy Gayle Jr. Gayle is actually from Niagara Falls and I have played against him at camps as a kid since I’m from Buffalo. Thornton and Battle average 15 a game while Gayle averages 13, after that the next highest scorer on the team is Zed Key who averages 6 a game. Basketball is not just offense though and big man Felix Okpara is a solid paint defender and rebounder for the Buckeyes. He played a big role in defending Zach Edey in their upset win last week. Whenever you are on your home court facing a team that is 0-7 in road games, it’s a must win. Ohio State has showed what team they really are for the most part of B10 play and that is a below average squad. I will say that I am a little worried due to the coaching change. If they were able to beat Purdue it shows the team really wants to play hard for coach Diebler. Talking a little about specific matchups: Bruce Thornton is a great defender and I expect him to be on Tyson Walker this game. That means it is time for players like Malik Hall, Jaden Akins, and AJ Hoggard to step up. I am very excited to see Jaden Akins vs Roddy Gayle, 2 athletic and high flying wings who can also knock it down from deep. I don’t expect to see much from Mady Sissoko or Carson Cooper as the Ohio State bigs are just overall better players. The tip off is set for 4 PM at the Breslin Center with coverage on CBS. Go Green!
Snyder's Spartan Takes 
Leave a comment