Wisconsin vs Michigan State Thursday College BBall

By the time Michigan State recorded a basket that Valentine didn’t have a hand in, the game was 12 minutes old and it had a 13-point lead. Valentine had nine points and seven assists in 17 minutes, helping Michigan State to a 32-23 halftime lead. “Just take what’s there and try to get the best shot we can”. “I said, because of knowing him and the work he’s done on the road and listening to Bo talk about him, I thought he was deserving of the job”, the MSU coach Izzo said of Gard, who took over when Ryan abruptly announced his retirement after a win December 15. The Badgers held the Spartans to an average of 60.6 points over the last 20 meetings. Hayes leads the team with his 17.1 points per game and although he is shooting just 40 percent from the field that has gone up recently. The Badgers have also won and covered in two straight over the Spartans, which makes today’s spread somewhat surprising given they are playing so well. Bryn Forbes scored 17 on 4-for-8 shooting from 3-point range while Eron Harris added 10 points for the Spartans (22-5, 9-5 Big Ten). On the season he is averaging 19.5 points, 7.7 rebound and 7.1 assists per game which are worthy numbers. “This game was important to him”. Instead, the Badgers (16-10, 8-5 Big Ten) fell into eighth place, 2½ games behind co-leaders IN and Iowa. “That’s where we really dug ourselves a hole early, by not finishing inside”.

Not only did it see its seven game winning streak, the longest in the nation among major conference teams, come to a crashing halt, Wisconsin (16-10, 8-5 Big Ten) dropped 2.5 games out of first place with five games to go and became one of five conference teams with five losses. The junior big man had six points, five rebounds, three assists, three steals and – get this – only one foul. Their last four wins have come by an average of 25.0 points. Among those wins was a victory over Maryland and a blowout over IN on Sunday.

While Valentine has been the star for Michigan State forward Matt Costello has picked up his play lately as well. With another win against a ranked opponent, the Badgers would certainly be a lock for the NCAA Tournament.

Wisconsin: Koenig extended his streak with a 3-pointer to 37 games, but didn’t do much else for the Badgers until late in the game when it was out of reach…. For the Michigan State radio broadcast go here and for the Wisconsin radio broadcast go here. Wisconsin missed eight of its first nine shots as Michigan State raced to a 14-3 lead. At least one of the teams has been ranked in 29 of the last 30 meetings….