Michigan State Spartans at Iowa Hawkeyes Pick – Odds and Against the Spread Predictions

Thursday night the no. 23 Iowa Hawkeyes will host the no. 6 Michigan State Spartans in a Big Ten showdown. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. from Carver-Hawkeye Arena, as Tom Izzo and his Spartans look to remain undefeated against conference opponents entering this one a perfect 7-0. Michigan State sits atop the conference with a 16-2 record, as Iowa remains fourth best with a 5-3 record in the conference and an overall record of 16-3.

Iowa Riding High

The Hawkeyes enter this game winners of “five-straight games”. They took care of business against the Fighting Illini on Sunday with a 95-71 victory. Freshman Joe Wieskamp matched a career high with 24 points, shooting a perfect 8-8 from the field. Iowa went crazy shooting 68% from the field and 71.4% from beyond the arc. Junior forward Tyler Cook leads the way for this Hawkeyes team with 17.1 ppg and 8.3 RPG. Cook also leads this team in minutes averaging 31.1 per game, junior guard Jordan Bohannon remains the other player who averages over 30-minutes per game for this team. Head coach Fran McCaffrey and company will look to feed off the home crowd to try and take down a very tough Spartans team.

Spartans Talented as Favorites

ESPN’s Basketball Power Index is giving Iowa just a 30.7% chance of winning, despite playing at home. Giving Michigan State a 69.3% chance of winning this game on the road. These Spartans have been on quite the roll winning 11-straight games. They will host the no. 19 Maryland Terrapins Monday night before they make their trip to take on Iowa Thursday. Taking a look at their most recent game against Nebraska, Cassius Winston scored a career-high 29 points, and Nick Ward added 15. Ward also contributed 10 rebounds in the win, but senior forward Kenny Goins led the way with 11 boards for the Spartans. This team is led by Winston (18.2 ppg), Ward (16.6 ppg) and Joshua Langford (15 ppg). Winston also dishes out a team-high 7.3 APG. Kenny Goins does a lot of work in the rebounding category averaging 9.5 per game and Nick Ward is second with 7.1 RPG. Neither forward presents a considerable size mismatch down low, as Ward is listed at 6’8″ and Goins listed at 6’7″.