#852 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Michigan State -9.5 over Ohio State, Sunday at 4 PM ET - Tough spot for a struggling OSU team on the road after playing @ Minnesota on Thursday night. They’re playing an MSU team that is off a poor home loss on Tuesday vs Iowa and they’ve had 2 extra days to get ready for this one. The Buckeyes had their one big upset at home vs Purdue the game after their head coach Holtmann was fired. That was a week ago and you could see in that game that OSU brought their “A” game along with an emotional effort which was to be expected. Then on Thursday they went right back to their old ways losing by 9 @ Minnesota in a game that wasn’t that close (Gophers led by 17 with 5:00 remaining in the game). They haven’t won a road game yet this season, 0-8 SU, and they are walking into a hornet’s nest here after traveling with short rest. MSU looked sluggish here on Tuesday vs Iowa to say the least. The Hawks shot over 50% and averaged 1.20 PPP which is WAY above Sparty’s season average as they allow 0.95 PPP. MSU should fare well offensively here vs an OSU defense thar ranks 13th (out of 14 Big 10 teams) in defensive efficiency and dead last defending the arc. Meanwhile Sparty, after a very slow start to the season from 3 point range, has moved all the way up to 30th nationally hitting 37% of their triples. We’re getting value in this bounce back spot as Michigan State was favored by 9.5 vs Iowa on Tuesday and now we get the same opening line vs an Ohio State team that is in a bad situation and ranks well below Iowa in KenPom’s power ratings. Prior to that loss, MSU had won 9 straight home games and they can’t afford a loss here with Purdue and NW (2 losable games) on deck. The Spartans are safely in the NCAA field now right around an 8 seed but a loss here could move them closer to the bubble.