{"id":22180,"date":"2012-03-11T10:43:45","date_gmt":"2012-03-11T15:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=22180"},"modified":"2012-03-11T10:43:45","modified_gmt":"2012-03-11T15:43:45","slug":"big-ten-tournament-2012-ohio-state-buckeyes-vs-michigan-state-spartans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/big-ten-tournament-2012-ohio-state-buckeyes-vs-michigan-state-spartans-22180\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Ten Tournament 2012: Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Michigan State Spartans"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 7 Ohio State Buckeyes vs. No. 8 Michigan State Spartans
\nSunday, 3\/11\/12, 3:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Ohio State -2
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Ohio State -1.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 130.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 131.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Michigan State Spartans and Ohio State Buckeyes will battle it out in the Big Ten Conference Tournament Championship Game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ohio State will compete in its fourth consecutive Big Ten Tournament Championship and will look to also win its ninth straight game in the event.\u00a0 The Buckeyes know they will be facing a revenge-minded opponent due to handing the Michigan State Spartans a 72-70 defeat as three-point road underdogs on March 4.\u00a0 A lot more is on the line in terms of seeding for the upcoming NCAA tournament as well.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re not worrying about a No. 1 seed right now,\u201d commented Buckeyes point guard Aaron Craft.\u00a0 Ohio State is 11-5 ATS in March the last two-plus years.<\/p>\n

The Buckeyes are 19-8 overall in the tournament and have won 15 of their last 18 games in the event.\u00a0 Ohio State is led by a trio of players offensively, with sophomore center Jared Sullinger leading the way in averaging 17.5 points per game, with DeShaun Thomas closely behind in scoring 15.5 points a contest and senior William Buford scoring 14.8 points a game.\u00a0 Sullinger scored 17 points and came down with 16 rebounds in the first matchup versus the Spartans in Columbus, but was plagued by foul trouble in the second meeting in East Lansing.<\/p>\n

Michigan State is playing tremendous basketball in this event and is shooting 54.6 percent from the floor, while holding opponents to 39.2 percent from the field.\u00a0 The Spartans will be led by senior forward Draymond Green from an emotional and offensive standpoint, as he comes in averaging 16.2 points and 10.4 rebounds per game.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s just another opportunity for us,\u201d commented Green after the team\u2019s 65-52 semifinal win over the Wisconsin Badgers as four-point favorites.\u00a0 \u201cWe had two chances to win the Big Ten outright and we didn\u2019t do it.\u201d\u00a0 Michigan State is 14-6 ATS versus conference opponents this year.<\/p>\n

The Spartans are 17-12 all-time in the Big Ten Tournament, including a 2-0 record in the championship game.\u00a0 Michigan State is a dominating 65-26 when playing in March since the 1998-99 season, while going 72-33 over the course of the month during the Tom Izzo era.\u00a0 In the team\u2019s seven wins over ranked opponents, the Spartans are allowing just 57.3 points on 36.2 percent shooting.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Spartans due to the underdog being 5-0 ATS in the last five meetings, while the Buckeyes are just 16-16 ATS versus good defensive teams the last two-plus years.<\/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. 7 Ohio State Buckeyes vs. No. 8 Michigan State Spartans Sunday, 3\/11\/12, 3:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Ohio State -2 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Ohio State -1.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 130.5 Current Total:\u00a0 131.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Ohio State will compete in its fourth consecutive Big Ten Tournament Championship and will look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[6556,5832,3883,500,463],"class_list":["post-22180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-big-ten-tournament-championship","tag-draymond-green","tag-jared-sullinger","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22180","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=22180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22181,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22180\/revisions\/22181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}