Michigan State received some tough news regarding an injury. Can they put that behind them to beat a reeling Indiana squad?
TV schedule: Saturday, February 2, 6:00 pm ET. ESPN
Arena: Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan
This has been a tough week for Michigan State Basketball 18-3 (9-1), suffering losses on and off the court. The first problem happened this past Sunday, losing at Purdue, 73-63. The Spartans were down by over 20 points at one point before furiously coming back in the second half, until the Boilermakers ultimately pulled ahead.
Cassius Winston scored 22 points to lead the team but Matt McQuaid was the only other Michigan State player to reach double figures with 12 points. As a team, the Spartans shot 39% from the field while succumbing to the balanced effort of Purdue.
But the tougher loss came a couple of days later when it was confirmed that junior guard Joshua Langford will miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury. He missed the team’s last eight games and was third on the team at 15 ppg on 40% three-point shooting and 84% from the charity stripe. When healthy, Langford and Winston created arguably the best backcourt in all of college basketball.
Now the Spartans officially will have to replace his production, starting with the Hoosiers. Indiana 12-9 (3-7) has lost their last seven games and is coming off of their worst performance of the season, losing on the road at Rutgers, 58-66.
As a team, they shot just 35% from the field (26% from deep), with Romeo Langford scoring 20 points on 20 shots. Outside of Juwan Morgan (15 points), there just isn’t much production for the rest of the Hoosiers not only in the last game but throughout Big Ten play in general.
The key to this game will involve the duo matchups of Winston and Nick Ward for the Spartans against Langford/Morgan for the Hoosiers. All of these players average 15+ ppg, so whoever scores more combined will give their respective team the edge.
In our latest Bracketology, Indiana has slid all the way down to the last four in at an 11-seed. With a couple more losses, they’ll be out of the picture. Will Romeo Langford have a primetime performance on Saturday evening? The bigger question may be will the other Hoosiers produce enough to help him out. Even without Joshua Langford, Michigan State will have enough to take care of Indiana.
Prediction: Michigan State 73 – Indiana 66
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