Michigan State pays No. 2 Texas a visit
Damion James and the Longhorns have had very little time to wallow in their dominating win over North Carolina on Saturday as they prepare for a quick turnaround game against another tough foe in Michigan State. The No. 2 Longhorns will be facing their second straight Top 10 opponent in the No. 9 Spartans in what promises to be an electric atmosphere at the Erwin Center with an ESPN2 audience looking on.
The teams belonging to Tom Izzo and Rick Barnes are developing quite an interesting rivalry on the hardwood, albeit a one-sided affair recently. The two Top 10 schools will meet for a fourth straight season on Tuesday when the Longhorns host the Spartans.
Texas opened as an eight-point favorite at TheGreek for the 7:00 p.m. (ET) tip on ESPN2.
Michigan State has won the last three meetings to take a 3-2 lead in the all-time series. All five previous meetings have been at neutral sites, though a couple of the sites haven't really been so neutral.
Just 367 days ago the 'neutral' site was less than 150 miles from the Texas campus at the Toyota Center in Houston. The 'Horns were ranked No. 5 going into that contest but fell to then-No. 19 State, 67-63.
Texas was a 5 ½-point favorite in the Dec. 2008 battle, marking the third consecutive meeting that the Spartans cashed at the window in addition to winning straight up.
The 'neutral' site exactly two years ago, Dec. 22, 2007, was The Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan. MSU won the meeting 78-72 as four-point chalk.
But this is a new season and with any college program, roster turnover can make recent head-to-head battles fairly irrelevant. And forget any thoughts of so-called triple revenge. The key players in last year's game, Goran Suton for State and A.J. Abrams of Texas are gone. So are D.J. Augustin and Drew Neitzel from the game at The Palace in '07.
If there's any revenge here, it's just between the coaches.
Izzo has been among the sport's elite coaches, and MSU's program a perennial power, for a while now. Earlier this season, in a 106-68 win over UMass, Izzo passed his mentor Jud Heathcote as the winningest coach in Spartans' history with victory #341. He brought Michigan St. into this season as the team to beat in the Big Ten and ranked No. 2 ahead of Texas in the preseason AP poll.
Losses to Florida at the Legends Classic and on the road at North Carolina sandwiched that record-setting win over UMass to dump Michigan State down the ranks.
The Spartans fell in a big 16-point hole at Chapel Hill on Dec 1 as 1 ½-point underdogs before losing 89-82. They've found it tough to beat the big lines in the four games since, beating Wofford, The Citadel, Oakland and IDFW straight up but winning just one against the spread to sit 3-7 ATS on the season.
Texas comes into this one as high as the basketball program has ever been. Though the win over North Carolina was huge, a win over MSU on Tuesday would make as much if not more of a statement for both Barnes and the 'Horns.
The Longhorns have been making a statement versus the betting numbers all season. In addition to its 10-0 record straight up, Texas is 7-1 against the spread and don't think that ATS mark isn't starting to show off in at least one poll.
While Kansas picked up all 31 votes for first in this week's coaches poll, Texas made up some ground on its Big 12 rivals in the latest AP rankings. Six KU voters from a week ago moved their No. 1 nods to the Longhorns in the latest polls released on Monday.
The Jayhawks now have 55 of the top votes to Texas' seven. No. 5 Syracuse received two first-place votes with No. 3 Kentucky getting the last top vote.
Texas has also been No. 1 in the Pomeroy ratings and ahead of Kansas for a couple of weeks, and what has them on top in that poll is defense. The casual fan will look at the Longhorns' last four games and first notice three games above the century mark. But it's the Texas defense, especially on the glass, that has been getting the job done.
Damion James and the Longhorns have had very little time to wallow in their dominating win over North Carolina on Saturday as they prepare for a quick turnaround game against another tough foe in Michigan State. The No. 2 Longhorns will be facing their second straight Top 10 opponent in the No. 9 Spartans in what promises to be an electric atmosphere at the Erwin Center with an ESPN2 audience looking on.
The teams belonging to Tom Izzo and Rick Barnes are developing quite an interesting rivalry on the hardwood, albeit a one-sided affair recently. The two Top 10 schools will meet for a fourth straight season on Tuesday when the Longhorns host the Spartans.
Texas opened as an eight-point favorite at TheGreek for the 7:00 p.m. (ET) tip on ESPN2.
Michigan State has won the last three meetings to take a 3-2 lead in the all-time series. All five previous meetings have been at neutral sites, though a couple of the sites haven't really been so neutral.
Just 367 days ago the 'neutral' site was less than 150 miles from the Texas campus at the Toyota Center in Houston. The 'Horns were ranked No. 5 going into that contest but fell to then-No. 19 State, 67-63.
Texas was a 5 ½-point favorite in the Dec. 2008 battle, marking the third consecutive meeting that the Spartans cashed at the window in addition to winning straight up.
The 'neutral' site exactly two years ago, Dec. 22, 2007, was The Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan. MSU won the meeting 78-72 as four-point chalk.
But this is a new season and with any college program, roster turnover can make recent head-to-head battles fairly irrelevant. And forget any thoughts of so-called triple revenge. The key players in last year's game, Goran Suton for State and A.J. Abrams of Texas are gone. So are D.J. Augustin and Drew Neitzel from the game at The Palace in '07.
If there's any revenge here, it's just between the coaches.
Izzo has been among the sport's elite coaches, and MSU's program a perennial power, for a while now. Earlier this season, in a 106-68 win over UMass, Izzo passed his mentor Jud Heathcote as the winningest coach in Spartans' history with victory #341. He brought Michigan St. into this season as the team to beat in the Big Ten and ranked No. 2 ahead of Texas in the preseason AP poll.
Losses to Florida at the Legends Classic and on the road at North Carolina sandwiched that record-setting win over UMass to dump Michigan State down the ranks.
The Spartans fell in a big 16-point hole at Chapel Hill on Dec 1 as 1 ½-point underdogs before losing 89-82. They've found it tough to beat the big lines in the four games since, beating Wofford, The Citadel, Oakland and IDFW straight up but winning just one against the spread to sit 3-7 ATS on the season.
Texas comes into this one as high as the basketball program has ever been. Though the win over North Carolina was huge, a win over MSU on Tuesday would make as much if not more of a statement for both Barnes and the 'Horns.
The Longhorns have been making a statement versus the betting numbers all season. In addition to its 10-0 record straight up, Texas is 7-1 against the spread and don't think that ATS mark isn't starting to show off in at least one poll.
While Kansas picked up all 31 votes for first in this week's coaches poll, Texas made up some ground on its Big 12 rivals in the latest AP rankings. Six KU voters from a week ago moved their No. 1 nods to the Longhorns in the latest polls released on Monday.
The Jayhawks now have 55 of the top votes to Texas' seven. No. 5 Syracuse received two first-place votes with No. 3 Kentucky getting the last top vote.
Texas has also been No. 1 in the Pomeroy ratings and ahead of Kansas for a couple of weeks, and what has them on top in that poll is defense. The casual fan will look at the Longhorns' last four games and first notice three games above the century mark. But it's the Texas defense, especially on the glass, that has been getting the job done.