Jackson’s strong second half lifts Kansas past Spartans

“Josh is a hell of a player”, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.

Jackson’s game-high 23 points carried the Jayhawks past the Spartans, 90-70 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at BOK Center.

The cast on hand should include at least three starters from Sunday’s game against the Jayhawks.

– Michigan State is 7-6 in its all-time series against Kansas.

Then he stood face to face with Bridges as they stared at each other in an image reminiscent of two heavyweights at a weigh-in.

“We’ve played in a lot of close games”, Self said, per Nightengale.

“I complain all the time about (teams) being soft, but I think historically we’ve had pretty tough teams (when) you compare it to everybody else”, he said.

Mason, who embodies that ideal as well as any player to come through the Kansas program, said that mentality starts at the top.

In bold prediction fashion, look for the two to combine for 50 points against the Jayhawks, and that might need to be the case if Purdue plans on keeping pace with Kansas in the scoring department.

Midway through the second half the Spartan continued to chip away at Kansas’s lead coming within in one point by going on a 7-0 run at 54-53 capped off by a Alvin Ellis transition layup with 12 minutes remaining. Kansas regularly lets teams hang around.

“Teams are going to make big runs”. Jackson already put the emphatic punctuation on the win with 2:05 left, when he raced down the lane for a massive dunk as part of a closing 21-6 flurry.

Points off turnovers can swing tight games in March and the sequence ignited a pro-Kansas crowd in Tulsa. “We played well for three-fourths of a quarter but we didn’t give it all we had”, says MSU guard Josh Langford, who finished with 10 points for the Spartans.

The advantage of MSU lacking talented senior leaders this past season is that they don’t have any to lose. In the end, I think this will go down as one of the best games in the tournament and Kansas squeaks out a tight victory. If this was his last game, thanks for the memories, Miles (but there could be some MUCH better ones if you stick around for just one more dance). “Why wouldn’t we be excited to play in our hometown, in our own state, in front of the best fans in the world”. Miles Bridges scored 18 points and led Michigan State with nine rebounds.

“And they (Spartans) go downhill when they get possession as well as anybody”.

According to oddsmakers at BetDSI, Kansas is the clear favorite in this game, as the Jayhawks are getting odds of -8 points against Michigan State. Izzo called timeout with 5:28 to play, and Graham responded with a 3-pointer out of the timeout for the Jayhawks.

MSU and Arizona are considered the frontrunners to land Bowen, who would be able to do some of the things Bridges did for the Spartans this season as a dynamic player on the wing. “Landen got in foul trouble and he came in prepared and ready to play”.

Frank Mason III is putting up 20.8 points per game in 2016-17, and – likely to no one’s surprise – he has cracked the 20-point mark in back-to-back tournament games.