No. 8 Michigan State at Rutgers – Mathias
Saturday, Jan. 25 – Madison Square Garden – New York City, New York
12:30 p.m. on CBS
Despite entering the season with the loftiest expectations in school history, Rutgers men’s basketball is back on the hamster wheel of mediocrity.
With two of the projected top-three picks in the upcoming NBA draft in freshman guard Dylan Harper and freshman G/forward Ace Bailey on board, Rutgers will be looking to right the ship against No. 8 Michigan State at the iconic Madison Square Garden.
The Spartans have immediately fallen back into coach Tom Izzo’s style of hard-nosed, team-oriented basketball on their way to a hot start in Big Ten action. Led by senior G Jaden Akins, Michigan State is one of the nation’s premier passing teams, specialising in dishing the ball around to their deep roster.
Rutgers might have the stars and more raw talent, but Michigan State’s experience and schematic edge should be enough to fluster the inexperienced Scarlet Knights roster. This green Rutgers team struggles with defending on the perimeter and fails to rebound effectively, and not doing the little things right against an Izzo-coached unit makes it practically impossible to come out victorious.
Prediction: Michigan State 87, Rutgers 72
No. 3 Duke at Wake Forest – Roman
Saturday, Jan. 25 —Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum — Winston-Salem, North Carolina
3:30 p.m. on ACC Network/ Youtube TV
Coming into this matchup with an impressive 16-2 record, the No. 3 ranked Duke Blue Devils will travel west to the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
These two ball clubs have a long history as Duke leads the head-to-head 39-9. However, in their last matchup, it was the Demon Deacons that got the better of the Blue Devils, grabbing a close 83-79 win.
In its last game, Duke dominated Boston College on both sides of the floor, cruising to an 88-63 victory. Freshman phenom F Cooper Flagg led the charge with 28 points, five rebounds and four assists. Junior G Tyrese Proctor was a scoring threat as well, contributing 20 points off of 58% shooting.
With a current 14-4 record, the Demon Deacons are looking to continue their five-game winning streak. In its last matchup, Wake Forest took care of business against Virginia Tech on its way to a 72-63 win. Senior G Hunter Sallis came up big, scoring a game-high 24 points while also grabbing seven rebounds and two steals. Senior center Cameron Hildreth got it going as well, contributing 21 points, three rebounds and a block.
Wake Forest is on a roll, and it will be interesting to see if it can keep up with the firepower of its conference leader.
All in all, I am going to take the Blue Devils in this one.
Prediction: Duke 82, Wake Forest 68
No. 23 West Virginia at Kansas State – Eric
Saturday, Jan. 25 – Bramlage Coliseum – Manhattan, Kansas
5:00 p.m. on ESPN+
The Mountaineers are coming off one of their biggest wins of the season after narrowly beating No. 2 Iowa State, 64-57. With this being their second top-3 upset, first-year coach Darian DeVries currently has his West Virginia squad rolling.
It’s been years since the days of “Press Virginia” but the team hasn’t lost their defensive identity. The Mountaineers held the Big 12-leading Cyclones offense to just 57 points, their lowest of the season.
Scoring has been led by senior G Javon Small and he is averaging 19.8 points per game, good for No. 1 in the conference. When the lights are the brightest, Small plays big, scoring 12 points in the last two minutes of the Iowa State upset.
Kansas State is fresh off of a 84-74 loss against rival Kansas, but played hard after getting out to a 14-0 deficit. Senior G Coleman Hawkins stuffed the statsheet, leading the team in all 3 major categories with 15 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds. Look for another all-around performance from Hawkins, but the Mountaineers’ defensive presence will be too much for the Wildcats to handle.
Prediction: West Virginia 70, Kansas State 54
No. 7 Houston at No. 12 Kansas – Olivia
Saturday, Jan. 25 – Allen Fieldhouse – Lawrence, Kansas
5:30 p.m. on ESPN
The Cougars are headed into this elite Big 12 matchup on a 10-game winning streak led by senior G LJ Cryer, yet on the other side of the ball, the Jayhawks are coming off of a rivalry win against Kansas State. Both teams are headed into this matchup with their game faces on.
This will be the 10th all-time meeting for these two historic basketball programs, with Kansas sitting in the driver’s seat with a 6-3 record. The last matchup was all Cougars as they toppled over the Jayhawks with a 76-46 win in March of last season, Kansas’ biggest loss of the year.
Houston has been powerful on the court this season, led by their guard duo of Cryer and junior Emanuel Sharp, both averaging 13.8 points a game as well as senior F J’Wan Roberts at 10.5. In their most recent win against UCF, Roberts had an incredible 21 point performance to push the Cougars over the edge to win 69-68.
In their rival win over Kansas State, the Jayhawks had two outstanding performers in senior C Hunter Dickinson with 25 points and senior G Zeke Mayo with 24. This matchup will be filled with back-and-forth action, but Houston will ultimately come out of Lawrence as the winner.
Prediction: Houston 83, Kansas 78
