I will predict that the Iowa outcome won't have any real impact against Michigan State because there are different match ups and the game is on the road.Some fans ,however,will use it as a excuse if there is a blow out loss.
Just curious.....Vegas has the spread at 17, whether that's too high, or not, we'll find out soon enough....MSU just beat Ohio State 62-44 and Nick Ward was essentially a non factor.....I think Ohio State was up 30-25 at halftime, so they only scored 14 points in the 2nd half.......Ohio State has a better roster vs RU today and big man in Wesson to go to in the low post and Michigan State is still a terror defensively.
I am all for raised expectations for RU and there are some factors that are strong indicators that RU can definitely compete with a banged up MSU, but I don't see an advantage at any position, where I can automatically say, "this RU player should have an advantage against MSU" in a half court game, where our offensive player is better than their defender. Michigan State defends and rebounds, so any 2nd chance shots RU is used to getting, probably wont be there tonight.
Do I think this has the capability of a low-scoring rock-fight where a couple of 3 pointers made by RU, can make MSU work very hard??? Absolutely.....at the same time, I've been stating for weeks/months that RU is almost a full year ahead on this rebuild schedule and RU is a full 2 games ahead of PSU and Northwestern, to stay out of the basement. 6 weeks ago, RU fans would have been bouncing off the walls to not finish last and now we have some of our most skeptical fans, who always talk about lack of scoring, running into the teeth of the best defensive roster, year in and year out, in the B1G....and it's on the road.
This isn't an excuse because I think we will have a ball game with under 8 minutes left, but what we saw last night from Iowa vs Maryland, was an Iowa team on gas fumes, having been worked for a full 40 minutes vs Northwestern, had a week off and then RU wore down Iowa for another 40 minutes, where they looked very uncomfortable with people in their face........Maryland saw the tape and got in Iowa's face and rewound the same game plan and won at Iowa.....Iowa now will have other teams believing you can pressure them in the half-court and teams are now trying to take away Bohannon, who has emerged as the key to their offense.
At the same time, RU also played very hard on Saturday night and extended a ton of physical energy, grit and determination and at some point, logic tells you that there may be a let down where the legs, jump shot are just not there, deep into February. It would not also shock me to see more Issa Thiam and Peter Kiss playing more minutes, to save the legs of the freshman not named McConnell...... RU needs to have something left in the tank for remaining 4 games and especially Minnesota on Sunday night, vs believing or expecting that they have another A+ effort defensively against Michigan State on the road.
We'll see what happens, but "some fans using it as an excuse"....man, not sure what games your watching night in and night out, but I can assure you that playing at Michigan State is not an easy assignment.....Vegas says 17....should RU cover 17....?? Absolutely, I think they should stay within 15....but if they game gets away from RU early and they miss shots in the last 7 minutes like Ohio State did and it expands to an 18 to 20 point win, it wouldn't shock me either.
44 points for Ohio State....that's where Vegas is probably looking and wondering where RU finds 55 to 60 points to stay within striking distance.
I'll post how I would play this game if I'm RU, in the prediction thread, but I think there is a path to victory, but it's a little out of the box for some RU fans....
