Michigan State basketball vs. Western Michigan tipoff: Matchup analysis and a prediction

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Michigan State’s Coen Carr dunks against Florida Atlantic’s Baba Miller, right, during the second half on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in East Lansing.

• What: Michigan State vs. Western Michigan

• When: 3 p.m. Monday

• Where: Breslin Center

• TV/Radio: Big Ten Newtwork/Spartan Sports Network radio, including WJIM 1240-AM and WMMQ 94.9-FM

• Records/Rankings: MSU is 10-2 and ranked No. 18 in both the Coaches and Associated Press polls and is No. 15 via the college basketball analytics site Kenpom.com. Western Michigan is 3-8, unranked by the major polls and No. 288 on Kenpom.

• Betting line: MSU -27

• Coaches: Michigan State — Tom Izzo is 717-297 in his 30th season as a head coach, all with the Spartans. Western Michigan — Dwayne Stephens is 23-49 in his third season as a head coach, all with the Broncos.

• Series: MSU leads 28-11 all-time. MSU won early season meetings in 2021, 2020 and 2019. Before that, the programs amazingly hadn’t met since 1998.

Projected lineups

MSU

C (10) Szymon Zapala (7-0) 5.2

F (0) Jaxon Kohler (6-9) 8.7

G (3) Jaden Akins (6-4) 13.3

G (5) Tre Holloman (6-2) 7.3

PG (1) Jeremy Fears Jr. (6-2) 7.8

WMU

C (10) Max Burton (6-10) 7.0

PF (20) Owen Lobsinger (6-9) 11.4

SF (22) Markhi Strickland (6-8) 12.5

SG (7) Brandon Muntu (6-4) 7.2

PG (2) Chansey Willis (6-2) 17.0

• MSU update: The Spartans are coming off an 86-69 win over Florida Atlantic just before Christmas and appear to be healthy and in sync as the Big Ten season nears. After Monday’s game against Western Michigan, the Spartans are back in conference play until March, beginning Friday night at Ohio State. MSU has all sorts of connections to WMU, beyond long-time assistant coach Dwayne Stephens, who’s the Broncos’ head coach. MSU assistant Thomas Kelley was an assistant at WMU from 2018-22 under Steve Hawkins, Clayton Bates and, briefly, under Stephens, before returning to MSU. Former MSU graduate assistants Chris Fowler and Manny Dosanjh are on Stephens’ coaching staff. And MSU assistant Saddi…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/michigan-state-basketball-vs-western-015830530.html

Author : Lansing State Journal

Publish date : 2024-12-30 01:58:00

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