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NCAA Basketball Pick – March 7th

Neither the Michigan State Spartans nor the Wisconsin Badgers have a chance to win the Big Ten regular season title any longer, but the two still have a lot to fight for when they meet in NCAA basketball betting action on Thursday night at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing.

The Badgers have to pick themselves up off of the mat from a crippling blow at the hands of the Purdue Boilermakers. Wisky was rolling, and it had a shot to be in second place by itself in the Big Ten if it could just win a game against a then 13-15 Purdue team that was a 14.5-point underdog. However, the Badgers blew it on Senior Night, and now, they have to go on the road for the final two games of the regular season. Lose those two and ultimately drop in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, and perhaps the Selection Committee will give a glancing look to this resume, but in all likelihood, the biggest punishment that will happen will send Wisky down to the No. 9 line or so. What has to be concerning is the way that the offense just fell apart in that game against Purdue. Scoring 56 points against a team this bad is unacceptable by every stretch of the imagination, but the inconsistencies on this side of the ball have been problematic all season long. The team plays great defense, but averaging 67.0 points per game and shooting just 42.9 percent from the field isn’t going to cut it.

The Spartans probably had the bigger concern over the weekend when they went into Ann Arbor to take on the Michigan Wolverines. Sparty had already claimed a win over the then No. 1 ranked Wolverines this year, but it was going for the season sweep, one that would have put MSU on the top line for the time being in the NCAA Tournament in all likelihood. Instead, the game was lost in crushing fashion by a single point, and for the third straight game, the Spartans had to hang an ‘L’ in the record books. Michigan State has now suffered almost half of its losses in the last two weeks, and this could be another brutal blow if it is delivered. G Keith Appling is the man that really has to get up off of the mat sooner than later. He has only put up a total of 18 points in his last three games, and he committed the turnover that ultimately cost his team any chances of winning the game in Ann Arbor.

Prediction:

The Spartans have to be really careful in this one. Wisconsin had been playing great basketball over the course of its previous seven games before getting beaten by Purdue, going 6-1 SU and 5-1-1 ATS against some stiff competition. Michigan State should ultimately win this game, but we think that these two defenses are going to force this one to come right down to the wire, just like the Michigan game did. Take the points. Michigan State 61 – Wisconsin 59