March Madness Betting Preview: Northern Iowa Panthers vs. Michigan State Spartans
 Northern Iowa Panthers (30-4, 22-11 ATS) |
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 Michigan State Spartans (26-8, 13-20 ATS) |
Two of the more unlikely stories from the Midwest Region will clash in the Sweet 16 on Friday night at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis when the #9 Northern Iowa Panthers face the #5 Michigan State Spartans. Perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised at the Spartans, last year’s national runners up. They were probably underrated as a #5 seed, but somehow, they knocked off both #12 New Mexico State (70-67) and then G Korie Lucious beat the buzzer with a triple from the top of the key to take care of #4 Maryland (85-83). G Ali Farokhmanesh has been the hero in Cedar Falls this year, as his three pointers iced wins against #8 UNLV (69-66) and #1 Kansas (69-67) last week.
Defense, defense, and more defense. That’s what newly resigned HC Ben Jacobsen has been preaching to his team all week long. Even though the Panthers have to be thrilled to be here, unless Farokhmanesh keeps dropping threes all over the place, UNI is going to have to play a slower game that holds its opponents in check. Coming into the NCAA Tournament, it had only allowed its L/5 foes to score an average of 48.4 points per game, with none of the five scoring more than 55 points. The Panthers have the #2 rated defense in the country at just 55.0 points per game allowed.
Playing without G Kalin Lucas is going to be incredibly difficult for Sparty. Lucas leads the team in scoring (14.8 PPG) and assists (4.0 per game), and without him, Michigan State just looks like a completely different team. The good news is that almost all of the key cogs from last year’s NCAA Tournament Final game are back for another run at it, so even without Lucas, this is still a very talented squad. However, that doesn’t mean that the Final Four awaits.
Essentially, this game is a pick ‘em, which means that there’s a lot of respect coming for Northern Iowa. The Missouri Valley champions aren’t your average #9 seed, so go ahead and throw out the numbers next to everyone’s name in this battle. Look for the “Little Engine That Could” to keep rolling up the road to the Final Four, and don’t be overly surprised if there’s a lot of purple and gold in Indianapolis by this time next week, but it’s only going to happen if UNI keeps its foes at a snail’s pace.
Selection: Northern Iowa Panthers
The Panthers are 54-24 ATS in their L/78 duels as a dog and are 9-2 ATS in their L/11 tries against the Big Ten. You can find Northern Iowa at +1 right now at Diamond Sportsbook!
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