Despite Slow Start Michigan State is a Favorite to win Big Ten Tournament & In the Hunt for Conference & NCAA Titles
Despite Slow Start Michigan State is a Favorite to win Big Ten Tournament NCAA Titles
The 2015-16 NCAA Basketball season has been a tough one for the Michigan State Spartans. During the first few weeks of the conference season, the Spartans had an excruciating slow 3-4 start in conference play following, and the train of losses to Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska put the team as one of the longshots to win the conference title at any online betting site.
The initial projections placed Iowa, Maryland, and Indiana as the top favorites to win the Big Ten conference, but in a sudden turn of events, the early conference season struggles faded away, and the Spartans went from bad to amazing. Michigan State notched five out of six games, including wins over conference rivals and Big Ten front-runners Maryland and Indiana along the way.
Losses by Maryland, Iowa and Indiana in recent weeks made the Big Ten race an interesting one heading down the last stages of the regular season. Michigan State has now won sixof its last seven games after defeating the Wisconsin Badgers, but with only four games left in Conference play, the battle for the title is tighter than ever.
There are several teams within one and two games of the first place. All three teams ahead of Michigan State have difficult schedules ahead, and a loss at this stage of the season would be the end for any of them. But in order to make it to the conference championship game, Michigan State has to win all their coming games and avoid an upset. The Spartans will have to take down Ohio State twice, Big Ten winless Rutgers on the road and the Penn State Nittany Lions at home.
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Team | W-L | GB | PCT | W-L | PCT | STRK |
#22 Indiana | 12-3 | -- | 0.800 | 22-6 | 0.786 | W2 |
#4 Iowa | 11-3 | 1 | 0.786 | 20-6 | 0.769 | L1 |
#6 Maryland | 10-4 | 1.5 | 0.714 | 22-5 | 0.815 | L2 |
#8 Michigan State | 9-5 | 1.5 | 0.643 | 22-5 | 0.815 | W2 |
#17 Purdue | 9-6 | 3 | 0.600 | 21-7 | 0.750 | L1 |
Ohio State | 10-5 | 2 | 0.667 | 18-10 | 0.643 | W4 |
Michigan | 9-5 | 1.5 | 0.643 | 19-8 | 0.704 | L1 |
Now, another Big Ten Championship would be great for Tom Izzo and company, but the team has other goals in their mind. While the may have slipped in the polls in recent weeks, it still a strong contender for the national title. The Spartans currently have 7/1 odds to win the 2016 national championship, according to numbers released by MyBookie.ag online sportsbook. That's places the Spartans as one of the top teams in college basketball along with Oklahoma and Kansas.
In addition to Michigan State's National Championship odds, Spartans’ guard Denzel Valentine is listed as the second-most likely player to win the Naismith College Player of the Year award, with 13/4 odds.
