Julian Edlow provides his preview, prediction, and pick for Sunday’s college basketball game between Michigan State and Indiana.
Michigan State vs. Indiana College Basketball prediction, preview
Even going back to last season in Big Ten play, Tom Izzo’s Michigan State teams have had a lot of trouble getting going early in games. I was consistently fading the Spartans on the first half spread down the stretch in 2025, which I believe was on a 14-2 run at one point in time.
This season, history appears to be repeating itself. Sparty has led at halftime just once over their last eight games, as a big home favorite against UCLA in a near perfect spot — UCLA doesn’t travel well out east and Michigan State was off a blowout loss and responded well. In each of the other seven games, MSU simply has not played well in the first half.
In four of those seven games that Sparty was trailing at halftime, they were losing outright as the favorite. MSU is favored on Sunday afternoon in Bloomington. Now, let’s give Izzo and company credit, they’ve also been able to comeback in four of these seven games and win the game outright — which they did on Thursday night at Purdue.
So now we have the Spartans coming off one of their best wins of the season and going on the road once again. I expect yet another sluggish start for Sparty in this one, and the spot sets up well to get the Hoosiers’ best effort. Indiana blew a 13-point lead at home to Northwestern on Tuesday and lost outright. With two extra days to prep for this one, look for a hot start from the Hoosiers at Assembly Hall.
CBB Pick: Indiana 1H +1.5 (-110)