{"id":22374,"date":"2012-03-18T09:33:12","date_gmt":"2012-03-18T14:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=22374"},"modified":"2012-03-18T09:34:24","modified_gmt":"2012-03-18T14:34:24","slug":"ncaa-tournament-2012-predictions-saint-louis-billikens-vs-michigan-state-spartans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/ncaa-tournament-2012-predictions-saint-louis-billikens-vs-michigan-state-spartans-22374\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Tournament 2012 Predictions: Saint Louis Billikens vs. Michigan State Spartans"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 9 Saint Louis Billikens vs. No. 1 Michigan State Spartans
\nSunday, 3\/18\/12, 2:45 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Michigan State -6
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Michigan State -7
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 123
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 123
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Michigan State Spartans are favored to move past the Saint Louis Billikens on Sunday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saint Louis registered a 61-54 win over the Memphis Tigers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament as three-point underdogs, notching the program\u2019s first such win since the 1997-98 season.\u00a0 Billikens head coach Rick Majerus moved to 11-1 in leading his team in the first game of the Big Dance, as his squad is one of the best defensive units in the country.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a fun defense,\u201d commented Billikens senior center Brian Conklin.\u00a0 \u201cWe love playing defense like that.\u201d\u00a0 Saint Louis is 3-0 ATS as an underdog this year.<\/p>\n

The Billikens have never advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament and are 4-7 all-time in the event.\u00a0 Conklin is certainly a player to watch in being named first-team All-Conference, averaging a team-high 14.0 points per game and shooting 52.7 percent from the field.\u00a0 Saint Louis ranked eight in the country in surrendering 57.5 points per game, while the offense was sixth in the Atlantic 10 in field goal percentage, knocking down 45.2 percent of its shots from the floor.<\/p>\n

Michigan State advanced to the third round in picking up an 89-67 win over LIU Brooklyn as 19-point favorites, which served as the team\u2019s fourth consecutive cover against the Las Vegas number.\u00a0 The Spartans are led by Big Ten Player of the Year Draymond Green, who averages 16.3 points and 10.4 rebounds.\u00a0 He scored 24 points with 12 rebounds and 10 assists in the second round on Friday night.\u00a0 Since the Big Dance expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the program has tallied an 11-4 record in round of 32 games.\u00a0 Michigan State is 17-9 ATS as a favorite this year.<\/p>\n

The Spartans offense has come alive in the postseason during three games in the Big Ten Tournament and its first contest in this event.\u00a0 Michigan State is averaging 78.5 points and shooting 54.3 percent from the field, including 45.6 percent from beyond the arc over that span.\u00a0 Michigan State\u2019s 89 points were the most by any team through the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.\u00a0 The program is 7-3 when playing in tournament games within the state of Ohio.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Billikens due to their 6-0 ATS mark when playing on Sundays, while the Spartans are 3-7 ATS as neutral site favorites.<\/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. 9 Saint Louis Billikens vs. No. 1 Michigan State Spartans Sunday, 3\/18\/12, 2:45 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Michigan State -6 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Michigan State -7 Opening Total:\u00a0 123 Current Total:\u00a0 123 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Saint Louis registered a 61-54 win over the Memphis Tigers in the second round of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[6542,5832,500,3,4097,4250],"class_list":["post-22374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-big-ten-tournament","tag-draymond-green","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-rick-majerus","tag-saint-louis-billikens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22374","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=22374"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22377,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22374\/revisions\/22377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}