27 December 2011 No Comment
Tom Crean?s Indiana Hoosiers have been one of the nation?s biggest surprises so far this year, having yet to taste defeat. But IU gets easily its toughest road test so far when it visits Michigan State on Wednesday night in the Big Ten opener for both. Sparty opened as a slight college basketball bets favorite on WagerWeb.com.
No. 15 Indiana (12-0) does already have a win over former No. 1 team Kentucky this season and that has been the only team able to stay close with the Hoosiers so far. But that game was in Bloomington. This will be only IU?s third true road game, and fewer places are harder to win than in East Lansing. Indiana last took the court Dec. 22, an 89-47 win over UMBC. Christian Watford led IU with 22 points. The Hoosiers heated up from long range in the second half, shooting 69 percent (9 of 13) from the 3-point line after going 2 for 14 in the first half.
The Hoosiers lead the nation in 3-point field goal percentage, are fifth in the nation in field goal shooting, second in scoring margin (25.1) and seventh in scoring (84.8). The Hoosiers are also averaging 23.5 points per game off of turnovers. The star of the team is freshman Cody Zeller. He leads the Hoosiers averaging 15.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. He is second in the Big Ten and sixth in the nation in field goal percentage, making 66.3 percent of his field goal attempts.
It is somewhat fair to question Indiana?s schedule so far. Of Indiana?s opponents to date, only three ? Kentucky, N.C. State and Notre Dame ? have a winning record. When you combine the opponents? records and take away the 12 losses to Indiana, they are 65-65.
Michigan State?s 13 non-conference opponents have a total record of 89-69. Take away the 11-2 Michigan State results and the record is 87-58. The Spartans have won 11 games in a row since dropping their first two games to North Carolina and Duke. The 11 non-conference wins are the most for MSU since 2007.
No. 17 MSU last took the court Dec. 22 and didn?t look great, beating Lehigh only 90-81 to improve to 9-0 at home this season. Draymond Green had 16 points and 10 rebounds for his seventh double-double this season. The three-year captain was 7 minutes late for a morning meeting and didn?t start the game. But despite a 5-for-17 performance from the field, he made an impact with a career-high six blocks.
Michigan State has won five in a row vs. Indiana, but was pushed to overtime last January in East Lansing before winning 84-83.
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