Michigan vs Michigan State -3 O/U 139
I played Michigan State a few weeks back before the game was cancelled. Now Michigan has gotten better but so did this spread. State has been a much better shooting team than they have in the past ranking 13th from three point land at 38.5% collectively. Their biggest weakness is turnovers ranking 280th in the nation turning the ball over at a 20.6% clip of possessions. The good thing for them this game is that Michigan only ranks 339th in steals this year. Michigan certainly isn’t as good as they have been, but they still have one of the best three players in basketball in Hunter Dickenson and they caught a sense of urgency winning three big 10 games in a row. The problem with Michigan is their guard play hasn’t been up to par this year, and when Dickenson is gassed or in foul trouble, this team seems to falter. Michigan State has some very tall guys down low and should be able to give Michigan some issues. Sparty won this matchup last year at home when they were the worse team. I think the spread is too light at three.
Michigan State -3 – 2 stars
Oklahoma vs Auburn -9.5 O/U 139
Let’s get right into the Big 12/SEC Challenge with one of the bigger games that I think might have some value. Auburn is coming into the strange timing of this challenge hot with no SEC losses this far. This means that this game really has distraction all over it for Auburn. The Tigers are a 1 seed right now and trying to have a perfect record in the SEC and now the Big 12 challenge jumped right in the way of that which means a shift in their mindset. To make Matters worse, Bruce Pearl’s name is now popping up in the media as a possible Louisville replacement coach which makes things unsettling. I even think that Bruce Pearl mentioned in the past how attractive that job is to him. The other issue with the Tigers is that consider is that Auburn has Alabama on deck after this game as well. Alabama is this school’s rival and they want to beat them bad. I have to play Oklahoma here due to the situation. Porter Moser’s new team is a very good shooting team ranking 10th in effective FG%. They have also already faced some very good defenses so far ranking 26th in defensive opponent strength. The Sooners will look at this game as a quality win opportunity, and this would certainly help them to get into the tournament after a bad Big 12 start to the year. Oklahoma is also 2-0 vs the SEC this year and this spread is large.
Oklahoma +9.5 – 2 stars and sprinkle
