Wisconsin Badgers at Michigan State Spartans Game Preview, Odds, Picks & Predictions
Ranked Teams Collide in Key Big Ten Matchup
Offensive Mojo Missing for Both Teams
The first two times that Wisconsin Badgers star Johnny Davis shot less than 30 percent from the field, he bounced back by scoring 64 points on 54 percent shooting. Obviously, Michigan State is hoping that Davis doesn’t get rolling early in this much-anticipated matchup.
No. 17 Michigan State is 9-1 at home and but is facing a 14th-ranked Wisconsin team that is 5-2 on the road. The teams are a combined 5-6 against teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Davis (+500) has the second-best odds to win the national player of the Year award behind Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe.
Wisconsin Badgers at Michigan State Spartans
- Game: Wisconsin (18-4) at Michigan State (17-5)
- Location: Breslin Center, East Lansing, Michigan
- Day/Time: Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET
- Television: Big Ten Network
Davis, Davison Looking to Find Touch for Wisconsin
Davis had scored in double figures in every game for Wisconsin and made at least 50 percent of his field goal attempts in four of the eight games before a tough outing in a loss to No. 18 Illinois. Teammate Brad Davison saw his streak of double-digit scoring games snapped at eight in the Illinois loss.
The prevailing notion was that the Badgers’ top two scorers would bounce back after combining to go 8 of 31 from the field in the 80-67 loss to Illinois.
Nobody, probably not even the opposing Penn State squad, was expecting Davis and Davison to finish with 13 combined points on 5-of-23 shooting.
Despite a nightmarish outing, Wisconsin survived as Tyler Wahl’s layup with 31 seconds left broke a 49-49 tie. Penn State’s Myles Dread’s 3-pointer with four seconds left was no good as the Badgers, listed by the college basketball spreads as a nine-point favorite against the visiting Nittany Lions, failed to cover for the fifth straight game.
Once again, the feeling is that Davis, who is one of the frontrunners for the national player of the year award, will be much more of an offensive factor as will Davison as Wisconsin looks to improve to 5-1 in road games in 2022.
Wisconsin has failed to cover against the college basketball spreads in its last five games.
Michigan State Seeing Scarlet After Rough Loss
There has been no lack of surprising results around the college basketball world this season.
Unranked teams have upset ranked foes in every Power-5 conference in the country, including the Big Ten, but very few people who bet online could have anticipated that No. 17 Michigan State would head to Rutgers and never lead once against the Scarlet Knights.
Rutgers led by as many as 23 points and came away with the eye-opening 84-63 victory as the Scarlet Knights shot 62.5 percent from the floor and held Michigan to six free-throw attempts.
Michigan State didn’t shoot the ball poorly as the Spartans made 44 percent of its field-goal attempts and actually shot a tad bit better from 3-pointer range than it did inside the 3-point line. Fifteen turnovers resulting in seven Rutgers steals didn’t help, nor did the fact that Gabe Brown and Marcus Bingham Jr. went had 32 points in 12-of-17 shooting but their teammates were just 11 of 35.
The best news for Michigan State is that the game merely goes down as an early February loss.
The Spartans, who also failed to cover as road favorites against Maryland before holding on for a 65-63 win, return home for one of the top games in the week in the Big Ten.
Michigan State has covered in four of the last six games against Wisconsin and that won’t be lost on those who bet online.
Wisconsin at Michigan State Head-to-Head
The fact that Michigan State went to Wisconsin and returned home with a win wasn’t shocking, considering that the Spartans not only won at Madison in 2018 and 2019 but were favored as the visiting team both times. There were also one-point losses in 2016 and 2020 to consider. However, a 12-point Michigan State win on Jan. 21 was not the expected outcome.
Michigan State with a great defensive effort in a road win over Wisconsin. They had to contest 80% of the shot attempts by the Badgers and cleaned up 80% of the misses. They made Johnny Davis earn his 25 points. Malik Hall led the way with 14P & 8R. @MSU_Basketball @bigten
— Paul Biancardi (@PaulBiancardi) January 22, 2022
The teams favored according to the Las Vegas odds have lost each of the last three games so the Michigan State faithful might be getting a little anxious about this one.
Five straight games in the series had gone under the total, but in the last three meetings, two went over and one landed right on the number.
Wisconsin at Michigan State Prediction
The total has gone over in eight of the last 11 games when Michigan State is listed as the favorite, as is the case in this one.
Both teams are coming off less-than-stellar performances and will be looking to get the offense rolling.
Michigan State has gone over the total in four of its last six conference home games and this game has the feeling of one where both teams will get into the 70s.
The 4-point line seems pretty high and Wisconsin should be able to stay closer than that if the Badgers don’t win the game outright.
