{"id":27006,"date":"2012-12-31T11:45:23","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T16:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=27006"},"modified":"2012-12-31T11:45:23","modified_gmt":"2012-12-31T16:45:23","slug":"michigan-state-spartans-vs-minnesota-golden-gophers-college-basketball-odds-and-picks-against-the-spread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/michigan-state-spartans-vs-minnesota-golden-gophers-college-basketball-odds-and-picks-against-the-spread-27006\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan State Spartans vs. Minnesota Golden Gophers: College Basketball Odds and Picks Against the Spread"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michigan State Spartans at Minnesota Golden Gophers
\nMonday, 12\/31\/12, 2:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Minnesota -6
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Minnesota -6.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 127.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 129
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Minnesota Golden Gophers can match up on the boards with the Michigan State Spartans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michigan State has won six games in a row, including a 67-56 victory over the Texas Longhorns as 11.5-point home favorites nine days ago, while going UNDER the posted total of 124.5.\u00a0 \u201cIt was a physical war and there were bodies everywhere,\u201d stated Spartans head coach Tom Izzo.\u00a0 He enters the team\u2019s Big Ten Conference opener with a 25-8 all-time mark against Minnesota.\u00a0 The Spartans have gone 11-6 in conference openers under his watch, including a 4-6 mark on the road.\u00a0 Michigan State is 1-5 ATS when playing a team with a winning record.<\/p>\n

The Spartans need to take better care of the ball if they plan on covering the number represented on the college basketball odds page, as they\u2019ve averaged 15.6 turnovers per game.\u00a0 Michigan State point guard Keith Appling is leading the team in scoring 14.9 points per game, but is averaging 2.5 turnovers per contest.\u00a0 Offensively, the team has shot the ball better of late, hitting 50 percent or more of its shots in 13 of its last 24 halves of basketball.<\/p>\n

Minnesota finished its non-conference schedule with a 12-1 record, with its only loss coming agains the top-ranked Duke Blue Devils on Nov. 22.\u00a0 The Golden Gophers are No. 11 in the latest AP poll, which is the highest ranking for the school in the Tubby Smith era.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to note that he\u2019s 3-15 all-time against the Spartans, but this may be his best team since arriving on campus.\u00a0 Minnesota is 0-3 ATS when playing with seven or more days rest, as it was last seen on the floor in a 75-50 win over Lafayette on Dec. 22.<\/p>\n

The Golden Gophers are averaging 41.0 rebounds per game, while winning the battle on the glass by an average of 10.2 boards.\u00a0 Minnesota leads the conference in averaging 16.7 offensive rebounds per game.\u00a0 The program is 1-5 when facing off against Michigan State in its conference opener, while Smith has dropped four of five lid lifters overall.\u00a0 Four of five probable starters are scoring in double figures, with forward Rodney Williams leading the way, averaging 13.0 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.\\<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely play the total in this affair, as the UNDER is 4-0 in the last four meetings in Minnesota.<\/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":"

Michigan State Spartans at Minnesota Golden Gophers Monday, 12\/31\/12, 2:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2 Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Minnesota -6 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Minnesota -6.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 127.5 Current Total:\u00a0 129 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Michigan State has won six games in a row, including a 67-56 victory over the Texas Longhorns as 11.5-point home favorites […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":26015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[3442,5831,500,464,7273,778,1384],"class_list":["post-27006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-keith-appling","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-minnesota-golden-gophers","tag-rodney-williams","tag-tom-izzo","tag-tubby-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27006","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=27006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27007,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27006\/revisions\/27007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}