{"id":11765,"date":"2010-12-21T21:36:20","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T02:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11765"},"modified":"2010-12-21T21:36:20","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T02:36:20","slug":"ncaa-basketball-preview-texas-longhorns-at-michigan-state-spartans-betting-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/ncaa-basketball-preview-texas-longhorns-at-michigan-state-spartans-betting-predictions-11765\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Basketball Preview: Texas Longhorns at Michigan State Spartans Betting Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Longhorns at Michigan State Spartans
\nWednesday, 12\/22\/10, 7:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Michigan State -5.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Michigan State -5.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 141
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 140<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Michigan State Spartans have won 52 straight non-conference home games and will be hosting the Texas Longhorns on Wednesday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Texas is set to play its second straight contest against an elite program when traveling to face Michigan State.\u00a0 The Longhorns topped the North Carolina Tar Heels 78-76 in Greensboro on Saturday.\u00a0 \u201cI thought our guys were really tough in the last four minutes,\u201d coach Rick Barnes stated.\u00a0 \u201cWe had a lot of different guys step up and do some things.\u00a0 But I just told the team that from top to bottom, this is as good of a team win as we\u2019ve had in a long time.\u201d\u00a0 Wednesday\u2019s contest marks the seventh meeting between Texas and Michigan State and the fifth straight year that the two schools have met on the hardwood.\u00a0 The all-time series is tied at three wins apiece entering tonight.\u00a0 Five of the previous six match-ups have come at neutral sites.\u00a0 Texas is 6-17 ATS on the road the past three years and currently an underdog on the college basketball lines page.<\/p>\n

The Longhorns tallied a 79-68 victory over the Spartans a year ago today at the Erwin Center, connecting on 59.4 percent of their field goals in the second half to pull away.\u00a0 During his 13 seasons in Austin, Barnes has registered a school-record 51 career victories against AP Top 25 opponents. Defensively, the team has held its first 11 opponents to an average of 62.5 points per game on 36.5 percent shooting, including a 47-of-164 (.287) mark from three-point range.<\/p>\n

Michigan State hosts Texas in the final non-conference game of the season and will be facing its seventh opponent that is currently ranked in the Top 60 of the Sagarin Ratings.\u00a0 Spartans head coach Tom Izzo is also ready to get back on the sidelines after serving a one-game suspension and his team will put their 52-game non-conference home winning streak on the line.\u00a0 \u201cI think this will be arguably the best team we\u2019ve brought in here in a few years,\u201d said Izzo.\u00a0 \u201cI think it\u2019s the most talented team that we\u2019ve played all year so far.\u201d\u00a0 Michigan State will be opening Big Ten play on December 31 by hosting Minnesota.\u00a0 The squad is 4-5 ATS on the year and 39-40 ATS over the past three seasons.<\/p>\n

The Spartans have been suffering through early season issues of turning the ball over, averaging 16.2 per contest.\u00a0 Michigan State opponents are averaging 15.7 points per game off turnovers compared to just 15.0 for the Spartans.\u00a0 During Izzo\u2019s career as head coach, the program is a dominating 213-26 at home, including a 190-17 mark over the last 14 years.\u00a0 He is hoping to have a healthy team on the floor for this important contest.\u00a0 Korie Lucious aggravated a right ankle injury Saturday while guard Keith Appling hit his head in the first half and did not return.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in knowing that the Longhorns are 5-0 ATS versus the Big Ten, while the Spartans are 7-1 ATS against the Big 12.<\/p>\n

The college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports are off to a fast start and can\u2019t wait for you to join them for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas Longhorns at Michigan State Spartans Wednesday, 12\/22\/10, 7:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2 Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Michigan State -5.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Michigan State -5.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 141 Current Total:\u00a0 140 Texas is set to play its second straight contest against an elite program when traveling to face Michigan State.\u00a0 The Longhorns topped the North […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[738,737,500,3781,496,778],"class_list":["post-11765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-big-12","tag-big-ten","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-rick-barnes","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-tom-izzo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11765"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11767,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11765\/revisions\/11767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}