{"id":21392,"date":"2012-01-31T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T17:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=21392"},"modified":"2012-01-31T11:59:39","modified_gmt":"2012-01-31T16:59:39","slug":"michigan-state-vs-illinois-big-ten-conference-basketball-inside-assembly-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/michigan-state-vs-illinois-big-ten-conference-basketball-inside-assembly-hall-21392\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan State vs. Illinois: Big Ten Conference Basketball Inside Assembly Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 10 Michigan State Spartans at Illinois Fighting Illini
\nTuesday, 1\/31\/12, 7:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Michigan State -3.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Michigan State -2
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 128.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 128
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Illinois Fighting Illini guard Brandon Paul leads the Big Ten in scoring during conference play<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michigan State heads out on the road after picking up consecutive home wins over the Purdue Boilermakers and Minnesota Gophers.\u00a0 The Spartans are led by senior forward Draymond Green, who is averaging 15.3 points and 10.4 rebounds per game.\u00a0 He leads the Big Ten Conference with 11 double-doubles this year.\u00a0 \u201cHe was just unbelievable,\u201d commented Spartans head coach Tom Izzo about Green\u2019s 22-point performance against the Golden Gophers.\u00a0 Michigan State is 14-14 ATS on the road the past two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Spartans are 4-2 in true road games this season, as they\u2019ve held opponents to 39.9 percent shooting from the floor in those contests, including 29.8 percent from beyond the arc.\u00a0 Michigan State is allowing just 60.2 points per game overall, which ranks 32nd nationally.\u00a0 Offensively, the program has really flourished from three-point range in the last 15 games, hitting 43.4 percent of its attempts.\u00a0 The all-time series between these two programs is tied at 55-55, but the Spartans have won six of the last eight meetings.<\/p>\n

Illinois is almost in a must-win situation Tuesday night after dropping its last three games, including a 77-72 overtime loss to the Gophers as 4.5-point road underdogs.\u00a0 \u201cTough game, obviously,\u201d commented Fighting Illini head coach Bruce Weber.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve lost three in a row, now let\u2019s see if we can come back and respond with character.\u201d\u00a0 The Fighting Illini are 4-5 in home games versus top-10 opponents during Weber\u2019s time on the sidelines in Champaign.\u00a0 Illinois is 2-14 ATS as a home underdog of three points or less.<\/p>\n

The Fighting Illini have been involved in many close games this season, with the last six being decided by five points or less.\u00a0 That is the program\u2019s longest such streak during conference play in the modern era.\u00a0 Illinois will lean heavily on Brandon Paul on the offensive end, coming in as the Big Ten\u2019s leading scorer in averaging 20.0 points in league play.\u00a0 He has reached double figures in scoring in 14 of the last 15 games, including the last 10 contests.\u00a0 The last 13 matchups in this series have been decided by 10 points or fewer.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Fighting Illini due to their 5-0 ATS mark on Tuesdays, while the Spartans are 0-6 ATS as a road favorite of 6.5 points or less.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No. 10 Michigan State Spartans at Illinois Fighting Illini Tuesday, 1\/31\/12, 7:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Michigan State -3.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Michigan State -2 Opening Total:\u00a0 128.5 Current Total:\u00a0 128 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Michigan State heads out on the road after picking up consecutive home wins over the Purdue Boilermakers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[4011,3442,6417,5832,697,500],"class_list":["post-21392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-assembly-hall","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-brandon-paul","tag-draymond-green","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-michigan-state-spartans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21392","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=21392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21394,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21392\/revisions\/21394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}