Predictions for Mich/Sparty bball

"Guess the Score" thread.

/End.

GR3 gets going again and Stauskas hits 4 three pointers. Michigan wins 65 - 60.

Michigan GUARDS THE GLABDANGED INBOUNDER.

Michigan 73  state 68

msu 62

MICH 59 

:(

JK

msu 59

MICH 70

Michigan wins 90 - 42 and Tom Izzo turns more purple than Brian Kelly. 

Muppets.

Can we get Novak to show up just to blow up on a few guys if we get down early?

Unless we are flat like at Wisc, I think we match up well. We have a better perimeter game so guards need to shoot often and well because rebounds will be tough. Could be a key road win.

We will lose another physical battle tonight and I'm not sure we find the juice for MSU - as strange as that sounds - like we could for Ohio.  This one looks a lot like the IU game, with less good basketball.

60-51, STAEE.

Nick and GRIII absolutely postively need to step up tonight. We won't beat Sparty with only Trey, Tim, and Mitch carrying the bulk of the scoring load. 

59-58 Michigan

Hardaway with a game winning running bank shot as time expires.

It'd be nice to start quickly, a la the Northwestern games. If we start quick I'd say Michigan by 6-10. If not, it wouldn't be surprising to see Sparty win by 10.

I feel like if we get a couple of good looks and buckets early it will help the team settle in. I'm sick of seeing the team start slow, especially on the road. MSU has looked dead at home in the first halves of their past few games. They scored 18 first half points against Minnesota for God's sake.

Start quickly. Silence the crowd. Get EVERYONE involved (WE ON Anyone?).

P.S. I really hope Burke does his beginning of the year Burke - roughly 16 points and 10 assists. It's growing old having him dribble out the clock while everyone stands and watches.

Go Blue!

65- 60 Michigan

The pressue will be on Sparty tonight as they are leading the Big10 as of right now.  They haven't faced that kind of pressure yet this year and we have seen what the pressure of being #1 in the country has done to teams and we seen K-State get hammered last night by their rival when they were in first place in the Big12.  Marquette was in first in the BigEast and they proceeded to lose to Georgetown.  Arizona regained first place over Oregon and promptly lost at home to Cal.

Here's a quick comparison:

By the numbers, this is a pretty even matchup, so if we don't come out looking as little flat as in the Wisconsin game, as someone noted above, then it stacks slightly in our favor, I would think. That being said, this seems like it will be another defensive game, so if we can make the easy shots that do come our way, we might get away with a win at Breslin. If we let State get out to a quick start, they have the defensive competency to make this Wisconsin redux. Not much of a prediction, but this game might be a good each way bet as Massey and other sites have noted. That being said, the optimist in me will go with 66-64-ish Michigan.

We are the better basketball team. Winning in the road is tough, but we have already been more than tested on the road. It's not like we just shrank under the pressure. We lost three hard fought games, one of which courtesy of a half court shot. We know to expect some bad calls, and the opponent to shoot better than normal. I also think we find a shooting touch tonight and won this in the 6-10 point range

...as I see anything from MSU by 8 to UM by 10 (depending upon how they rebound from UW), I do think that if UM wins I see them as a Final Four team and if they lose I think they probably lose in the Great 8 game.

My rationale is that this is their last chance to make a statement outside the confines of Crisler before the B1G tournament and the tourney. If they lose tonight, I do think that they will carry with them added pressure and doubts about winning away/neutral games with unfriendly refs and the like. Also, it would likely mean that they would be out of the midwest for the tourney or, if they are a 2 seed, in the same bracket as IU in Indy (which might as well be an away game).

of the outcome, we have this:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013_swimsuit/models/kate-upton/

Didn't see this link anywhere and even if already posted it's worth a repeat or ten.

GRIII can show up and everyone else do what they do, then we can win this game by a handful of pts, if not, get ready for another game coming down to the wire.  We need his quite 12 pts. 

Burke has to win the match up with App and some how Michigan must limit Payne a bit. The guy has been on a tear and has been shooting the ball very well. They will go to the block on us time and time again. That is where they have an advantage on us. It will be interesting to see if Coach B goes with two bigs in the lineup or goes to a zone to counter Nix and Payne.

Burke gives up the last shot and THJ drills it. Michigan wins 70-68. I sleep well and awake to happiness.

UM - 72

MSU - 67

Big bounce back game for UM.  MSU does not have great perimeter defenders and Hardaway and Burke take advantage of this.  Both go for 20+ as UM picks up a huge road win.  Go Blue!!

> 15 minutes tonight and McGary fouls out (along with Appling).

I'm not exactly sure how the final outcome is decided, but I do predict we begin the game similar to the way the games at Indiana and Ohio State started.  Flat. 

Aside from the few fast starts that we've had, B1G play has really slowed us down.  Once we get started, we generally can break out big scoring runs, but for the most part we've been a little slow on the uptake of getting comfortable with the environment, refs, defense, etc.

I'm not saying we lose, but, again, I think we're in for another ten point deficit halfway through the first half.  We just need to respond adequately.

While we have lost three of our tough road games (@OSU, @Indiana, @WISC) we were in them all, after being down by 21 and 15 and 9, respectively.  In fact, we should have beaten Wisconsin 60-57 and we probably would've beaten Indiana (or at least ended with a single digit loss) if they hadn't went 14 of 14 on their free throws to end the game (remember, we did score 3 straight 3s).  And of course, Burke missed a finger roll basket to put Michigan up 1 in crunch time in the OSU game, only a 3 point loss.

Maybe tonight is finally our break?  Maybe tonight we beat MSU in the final seconds or something good?  This team sure as hell deserves it.

I think it would be foolish to expect a Michigan win given the road game/hostile environment, but if we fire quickly and catch State snoozing in the first half, we have a very, very good chance.  The safe pick, at least for me, is a State victory by 8-10 points (padded by free throws at the end, should we choose to foul).