Butler vs Michigan State Picks and Predictions Nov 17
Butler vs Michigan State Betting Preview
WagerTalk college basketball handicapper Tony Finn offers his Butler vs Michigan State betting preview for Wednesday, November 17 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. At the time of posting, the Spartans are a 3-point road favorite at Butler with the total sitting at 131.5 points.
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Butler vs Michigan State Predictions
- Butler Bulldogs +3 vs Michigan State Spartans
- Total: 131.5 Points
- Michigan State is 2-9 against the spread in their last 11 road games when playing a team with a winning home record.
- Michigan State is 4-13 against the spread as a road favorite.
- Butler is 6-1 ATS in the Bulldogs’ last seven games as a home underdog.
Circa of Las Vegas opened this Big ten versus Big East matchup with Michigan State carrying the favorite torch. The Spartans were initially posted as 2-point road chalk with a total of 131.5 points. However, within a couple of hours, Circa had back and forth money on Sparty and the Butler Dogs before the handicap stabilized with the Spartans’ 2.5-point favorites with the same opening over-under of 131.5 points.
The Big 10 Michigan State Spartans (1-1) are playing the role of visitor in historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis with a meet against the Big East’s Butler Bulldogs (3-0) tonight.
Fox Sports 1 is broadcasting the Wednesday night college basketball featured event with tipoff scheduled at 7:00pm ET inside Hinkle’s center circle.
Sparty is 1-1 after a 90-46 win over Western Michigan on Friday. Butler is a perfect 3-0 and coming off a 70-59 win over Troy on Saturday. Michigan State bench boss Tom Izzo is 643-255 in his 27th season as a head coach. Note that Izzo has not had any other college basketball head coaching job. The conductor of the Butler Bulldogs, LaVall Jordan, has an 83-79 mark in his sixth season as the ‘dogs head coach.
State leads the series 10-5 all time. Most notably relevant for tonight’s showcase event is that these two programs last met in April 2010. If a school is playing basketball in April, the only event they could or would be taking part in… the Men’s NCAA National Championship Final Four. The Bulldogs defeated Michigan State in a Saturday Final Four matchup by a 52-50 final score.
Tonight’s game between these two tradition-rich programs is the first scheduled event in 50 years. The last preseason matchup for and against each other was in December of 1971. Also, that 1971 contest was the last time that the Spartans played an official game on Hinkle court.
Michigan State Spartans
The Spartans were last seen competing with neighbor Western Michigan in East Lansing. MSU’s second and last game of this early 2021 campaign in which Sparty rolled by a 90-46 final over Western Michigan. Tonight’s tilt against Butler will be the Spartans’ first true road game in nearly two years, since March 3, 2020.
Coach Tom Izzo’s seniors, Gabe Brown, Joey Hauser, and Marcus Bingham, did not perform to the standard of coach Tom. In addition, the entire Sparty squad wasn’t tough-minded in their season opener against the Kansas Jayhawks and were not menacing in the blowout of Western Michigan.
Izzo’s player ranked outside the top 90 teams in offensive and defensive rebounding efficiency last season, per KenPom. The Spartans doubled up Western Michigan 58-28 in the rebounding stat, but the squad failed the eye test of being the physical team that the Spartan’s head coach is known for.
What the Spartans have executed Izzo trademarks this young season that they didn’t in COVID 2020. They are notably pushing the tempo and creating scoring opportunities in transition.
Michigan State is expected to start center Marcus Bingham Jr. (11.0 ppg), Joey Hauser (10.0), Gabe Brown (13.5), Max Christie (7.5), and Tyson Walker (5.5) tonight.
Butler Bulldogs
The Bulldogs return all five starters from last year’s disappointing campaign. Unfortunately, there isn’t yet sufficient Intel to adequately access Butler’s 3-0 start. Nevertheless, the Bulldogs numbers, the metrics on the surface, and those underlying in the shade of the squads’ surface work are positive. However, the Bulldogs have squared off against IUPUI, Central Arkansas, and Troy, one of the softest schedules for a Power-5 program, per KenPom (2) rankings.
Butler rosters five fifth-year or graduate seniors. The Bulldogs have four players taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility via the pandemic. One of those that is closing in on collecting social security is starting point guard Aaron Thompson. The Bulldogs’ floor general missed half of last year due to injury. He served a suspension of three games and will make his debut tonight against Sparty.
Izzo and his troupe weren’t ready for the season opener against a deep, well-coached Kansas Jayhawks squad. So the team’s second game and the one that led to the tournament contest against Izzo and his clan was practically a practice without contact as the Spartans dismantled Western Michigan.
Butler has played on a hardboiled egg schedule that didn’t prepare the Big East Bulldogs for the physicality of tonight’s game. Look for Izzo’s frontcourt to be brutally physical in the paint and around the rim, and Butler missed shots to push the pace allowing his players to be creative in transition.
The Spartans were not overwhelming in defending the 3-point line in the loss to Kansas, but they were spot-on in their latest event and victory vs. Western Michigan. The most probable outcome of tonight’s contest at Hinkle is a Spartans straight-up win and cover. It all happens behind the physical Spartans’ play that results in outrebounding the Bulldogs and outscoring them in transition.
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Butler vs Michigan State Analysis from The GoldSheet
After three comfortable wins against overmatched competition, Butler will test itself against a big boy in Michigan State, welcoming it into Hinkle Fieldhouse for a Gavitt Games contest. The event has seen the Big East rise up through the first few days of action, so it would be on script for the Bulldogs to pull this upset. Second-year freshman guard Chuck Harris picked up where he left off last season and is the primary catalyst while true freshmen Jayden Taylor and Lithuanian import Simas Lukosius look promising, so this is a team that should improve under LaVall Jordan by season’s end.
Sparty is looking for Northeastern transfer Tyson Walker to continue asserting himself as the floor general and has seen backup A.J. Hoggard impress as the primary facilitator off the bench. A challenge like Kansas was too much for Tom Izzo’s team to overcome in a season opener and it appears like there’s no true go-to guy on the roster with Aaron Henry gone and true freshman Max Christie struggling early. Michigan State is favored by 2.5 points on the road, which seems short but is nonetheless too much baggage to take on for a team that looks to be a work in progress. The total is just 131.5, but given that neither team is likely to find a sustained offensive rhythm, the low side is the right call.
NCAAB Happy Hour Tip-Off Show
St Johns is averaging 105 points per game to start the season. Can the Red Storm continue their hot shooting tonight in Bloomington? Pull up a barstool and join us as we break down the college basketball card from a sports betting perspective, including Butler vs Michigan State; Oklahoma State vs NC State; and Indiana vs St Johns.
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