The Spartans are dancing into a second round matchup against top seed in the west, UNC. The matchup is a duplicate of the game the women’s teams just played in their tournament.
Michigan State is heading to the second round after a convincing win over Mississippi State. The first round 9 seed upset of an 8 seed sets the Spartans up for a clash against the West region’s top seed: North Carolina.
Game Time: Saturday, March 23rd at 5:30pm (US East Coast Time)
Watch the game: CBS (or streaming in the NCAA Tournament App with a Cable Subscription)
Comment and Follow Live at the GAME THREAD HERE (live at 3:30 pm)
Some basics to sound like a pro:
Michigan State:
The Spartans played one of their most complete games of the year in the win over Mississippi State. The Spartans got solid efforts from across their roster including 17 points from their bench. The much maligned front court got solid efforts from Mady Sissoko (9 rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench) and Xavier Booker (5 points in 11 minutes and a lot of “little things” type plays that contributed). And the backcourt played like the one everyone hoped would show up this year.
Tyson Walker had his customary 19 points. Jaden Akins had his best all round game playing some incredible defense and contributing 15 points. AJ Hoggard had a solid stat line (8 points, 8 assists) that only scratched the surface of his positive impact.
This (finally) looked like the team ranked in the pre-season top five. The one concern for the Spartans is still offensive punch. With their veteran backcourt all playing “well” the team still only tallied 69 points. That was more than enough in a game where their defense was the star. Against North Carolina though, they may need more firepower to keep up.
University of North Carolina
North Carolina has quite simply been very good all year. Their 28-7 record could easily have been even stronger considering how close many of their losses were. Their worst loss of the season was an 11-point loss to UConn . Even that game was closer than the score looks. The rest of the way, most of North Carolina’s losses were closely contested games till the final buzzer.
UNC’s consistency makes them a hard matchup for a Michigan State team that has been the exact opposite.
The scouting report for the Spartans will begin with UNC’s big man Armando Bacot. The 6’11” senior is an experienced and talented big man. He is averaging a double double this year – something he has now done for three straight years. His slight downtick in scoring average (15.9 points last year, 14.3 this year) speaks more to the number of offensive options the Tar Heels have rather than any struggle by Bacot.
Michigan State will have to gang rebound and throw fresh bodies at Bacot all game to keep pace on the boards. Rebounding could very well determine this game.
Beyond Bacot the rest of UNC has a lot of scoring punch. Senior RJ Davis averages more than 21 points a game and shoots more than 40% from three. Davis is helped by the emergence of freshman Elliot Cadeau. Cadeua leads the teams on assists and chips in just under 8 points a game. HIs three point shooting is extremely limited (16.7%) but his skills with the ball help keep UNC’s offense rolling.
UNC pushes the ball in transition almost as much as the Spartans, so that standard area of advantage for Michigan State will not be in play this game.
Michigan State’s defense will need to step up in a big way to slow UNC down enough to turn this game into more of a grind it out affair. If they can keep it a lower scoring game, the Spartans could pull off the upset.
Predictions:
BBD: Michigan State win 73-67
What are your predictions for the game? Let everyone know in the comments below.