College basketball betting favors Michigan State on Thursday as they host Penn State in a game that can be seen on ESPN 2. The Spartans have won eight of the last ten against the Nittany Lions although they are just 5-4-1 against the NCAA basketball betting odds.
College basketball betting had Michigan State winning 65-54 at Penn State last month as 6.5 point favorites. The Spartans have won three of the last four at home against Penn State but they are just 1-2-1 against the college basketball betting line in those games. Even though the game earlier this season went under the total, this has been a high scoring series. The previous five meetings all went over the total.
Penn State is not a great team but they are playing pretty well of late. They have won three of their last four overall including their last game when they took out Northwestern. The time to bet the Nittany Lions is when they are on the road as they are a sizzling 8-2 against the NCAA basketball betting odds in road games. Last year Penn State upset Michigan State in East Lansing for their first-ever win there. The Spartans lead the overall series 27-5.
Michigan State is coming off a big win on Sunday against Purdue as Raymar Morgan had 16 points and 11 rebounds. The win brought Michigan State even with Purdue in the Big Ten standings as both trail Ohio State by a half game. Morgan needs only 16 points to become just the fifth player in MSU history to score over 1,500 points and grab at least 700 rebounds. The win by the Spartans was a big one on Sunday but head coach Tom Izzo is cautioning his team about getting too carried away. “We’re going to start working immediately on that and make sure we don’t think we conquered the world because we won a game on the road against a really good team.” Izzo said.
Michigan State is 22-7 overall but they have not been a good team versus the college basketball betting odds this season, particularly at home. They are just 4-10 versus the college basketball betting line in home games this season so that is a concern in this matchup against Penn State. That probably won’t matter to most bettors as they will still probably lean to the Spartans in this game.