No. 5 Michigan State routs Illinois 79-54 without Valentine

Last night, when he practiced, there was just a calmness about our team.

Bryn Forbes scored 17 points to help No. 5 Michigan State rout IL 79-54 on Thursday night.

The Fighting Illini are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 Thursday games and 1-3-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a ATS win.

Michigan State is a substantial 13-point favorite in this game and the Over/Under (O/U) is set at 146 points. The Spartans were playing for the fourth consecutive game without their best player, All-American candidate Denzel Valentine, who is recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery and is expected to return Sunday.

After spending almost a month on the road, including a side trip to Dallas to watch the MSU football team play Alabama in the College Football Playoff on New Year’s Eve, the Spartans and Coach Tom Izzo are looking forward to the break between games and no classes until next week to make adjustments typical of his teams this time of year.

“Could’ve played, wanted to play, but he wasn’t quite there yet”, Izzo said.

“I thought he took a giant step tonight in all honestly and hopefully he’s going to continue to get better”.

The Spartans looked right at home in their first game at the Breslin Center since a win against Florida on December 13, assisting on 26 of 33 field goals. There’s a good chance he’ll be ready by Sunday, when Michigan State plays at Penn State.

Michigan State’s ball movement was exceptional and it resulted in 26 assists on 33 baskets. The Boilermakers made two starting lineup changes, with C A.J. Hammons opening in place of C Isaac Haas, and PG Johnny Hill starting in place of G P.J. Thompson.

Maverick Morgan had 15 points and Malcolm Hill scored 10 for IL. But Finke had just five points on 2-of-10 shooting. The Spartans finished the half on a 31-9 run to take a 47-22 lead.

“I feel like everybody played well”, said shooting guard Bryn Forbes, who scored a game-high 17 points.

Following his first IL team’s NCAA tournament loss to Miami, Groce delivered a moving locker room speech to his players, cementing the program’s identity as one that was tough and together.

Nunn did not travel with the team to East Lansing Wednesday, staying in Champaign to be there for the birth of his first child. A driver had been arranged to rush Nunn from the Lansing airport to the Breslin Center. He should be with his partner and see his son enter the world.

Groce said that as a father of three, he threw his support behind the father-to-be.

“Yeah, it felt good, but I knew I wasn’t playing, ” he said. “And he was there when the baby was born tonight”.

MI closed to within 58-52, but a Davis 3-pointer at the 8:26 mark extended the Purdue lead to 61-52. Matt Costello scored nine points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Anyway, Eron Harris has stepped in for Valentine and only averaged 19 points and 5 rebounds.

That being said, IL is arguably the worst team in the Big 10, and Michigan State should have no trouble at all.