Basketball Preview: MSU Vs. Northwestern

On Monday night, the Michigan State Spartans took all their frustrations from a rough loss to Nebraska out on the visiting USC Trojans to the tune of a 29-point victory. On Thursday night, MSU will look to begin a new winning streak, and with no ranked opponents on the schedule until January 30, it seems likely that we can stockpile some wins over the next few weeks. Hopefully this year’s west coast trip does not, uh, trip us up. But it all begins tomorrow evening when the Northwestern Wildcats bring their 0-3 conference record (8-6 overall) into the Breslin.

Prop bet: over/under 3.5 times that BTN will show Pat Fitzgerald in the crowd and mention he is the former NW coach. I’ll wager the over.

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As far as the guys currently employed by Northwestern (yes, I am calling college athletes employees now), their basketball team has a very simple scouting report. Like many a Wildcat roster of the past, this year’s version features that one guy who you know is going to be the biggest, by a significant margin, scoring threat, and there may not be much an opponent can do about it. This year, that guy in Nick Martinelli, the Big Ten’s leading scorer at 23.0 PPG, and just 0.1 off the national leaders. In 13 games played this year (he missed NW’s game against Butler), Martinelli has scored double-digits in all but one game, has reached 20 points ten times, and has two 32-point performances (against Ohio State and Howard) to his credit. And it is not a matter of him stuffing stats against the lesser teams on the schedule; in four of their six games against major-conference opponents, Martinelli has gone for at least 25 points.

Aside from their star senior, Northwestern has a couple other players averaging double digit scoring – point guard Jayden Reid (11.6 PPG) and their 6’11” man in the middle, Arrinten Page (15.0). Page and Martinelli share the team lead in rebounding with matching 6.5 marks while Reid, predictably, leads NW in assists at 5.4.

A trio of names…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/basketball-preview-msu-vs-northwestern-223000671.html

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Publish date : 2026-01-07 22:30:00

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