Basketball | Friday, January 13, 2023 11:09 AM (Revised at: Friday, January 13, 2023 11:10 AM)

Illinois Fighting Illini vs Michigan State Spartans Best Bet: Sparty Cruising Along

Sipa US / Alamy Stock Photo

US Sports Expert

Illinois Fighting Illini vs Michigan State Spartans Best Bet: Friday, January 13th

The Michigan State Spartans will be putting their 7-game win streak on the line on Friday night when they take on the Fighting Illini. Our resident hoops expert Ej Garr is simply on fire lately, and it looks like he has picked out another underdog to get the weekend started early.

In this article:

Illinois Fighting Illini vs Michigan State Spartans Preview

January 14, 02:00 (UK time)

The Spartans are cruising right along, and a huge win on Wednesday in Wisconsin now has them deadlocked with Purdue atop the Big Ten standings. The Boilers and Sparty have jumped out to a 4 -1 start in conference play, and the two of them will be meeting next Tuesday at Sparty’s house. Before we get there, we have some business to attend to, and when I saw the opening line of +5 I almost couldn’t get my words on the page quickly enough.

If I am being honest, I posted Michigan State ML to take out Wisconsin, and what a game that ended up being. Sparty bounced out of the Kohl Center in Madison with a 69 – 65 win, and Tom Izzo only needed 6 players to pull it off. Only Malik Hall contributed off the pine with 8 points from 27 minutes, but if you haven’t had a chance to see Joey Hauser in action yet, take in this game.

Hauser came up big time and again, pouring 20 points with 8 boards and converting all 6 of his free throws including a monster 3-pointer late when Sparty was down. With 4:14 to play, Wisconsin held a 5-point lead and I was kicking myself for a minute thinking fading the Badgers at home would be a good idea. It worked out fine, as Hauser’s 3-ball game Sparty a lead they would never relinquish, and every time the Badgers tried to put Sparty on the line late, they never missed a free throw and put the game away. Izzo’s bunch nailed 16 of their 17 free throws while outrebounding the Badgers 33 – 18. We all know how important the glass numbers can be if you have been paying attention to anything I’ve said around here.

Even though Sparty has Purdue on deck, there is no way Tom Izzo is going to let anyone look ahead. Izzo and Bill Self are almost the same people, and when they speak the entire team listens to every word. knowing to trust them.

The Illini also just took down Wisconsin, and now they are riding a modest 2-game win streak after following that win up by beating Nebraska this past Tuesday, 76 – 50. On paper, the Illini offense put up nearly 6 points more per game than Sparty, but as you know, rankings mean squadoosh when you play all of those non-conference cupcakes. (Yeah, I am an Italian New Yorker, you can’t auto-correct squadoosh! HA)

This is Big Ten basketball now, and this is going to be a game you don’t want to miss that will come down to the wire. Sparty will again knock down their free throws to keep themselves in the game and keep a lead if they have one too.