JEFF ALLEN’s CONTENDERS and PRETENDERS: MICHIGAN STATE
Another week goes by and team after team ranked in the Top Five of the AP College Basketball Top 25 gets beat in what seems to be on an almost daily basis. Ranked and unranked teams seem to be having their way with these “heavyweights and in fact, with a week left in the regular season, top five teams have been beaten by unranked teams an astounding 34 times, 12 times more than the previous record for a year. Call it parity, call it lack of a dominating team this year in college basketball … in the end, Jeff Allen believes the National Championship will come down to the usual suspects.
Michigan State
The Spartans have won eight of nine with the only blemish, a one point loss at Purdue in overtime in a game they had many opportunities to win in regulation and in the extra five minutes. More importantly from our point of view, Sparty has covered nine straight including Sunday’s surgical precision 88-57 blowout of Penn State. The last eight wins have all come by double-digits and the ninth was a nine-point decision over a pretty good Marilyn Terrapin team.
Mich State has everything you want in a tournament team that must win six straight games on the road. They have a veteran team that plays selfless team ball, rebounds and plays defense, can hit an outside shot and has a Hall of Fame Coach that has been there before. The Spartans three game skid in mid-January was directly attributable to a minor injury to their best player Denzel Valentine (19.7, 7.6, 7.6). Valentine is indeed the straw that stirs the drink in East Lansing and this is a totally different team when he’s in the lineup. No.45 gets plenty of help from Sr. shooting guard Bryn Forbes (14.6, 2,2, 1.5) and Sr. Matt Costello (10.6, 8,8) who does the dirty work in the paint and on the glass. The key word here is senior. These three have played in 302 games together as teammates and is the reason for Sparty’s flawless cohesiveness and continuity.
… and then there is Tom Izzo. Now 519-204 at Michigan State which includes a 244 and 111 Big Ten record, Izzo has taken the Spartans to eight straight Sweet 16’s including three final fours. He won the National Championship with the Matean Cleaves team in 1999-2000 and is second all-time in Big Ten Conference wins trailing only Bobby Knight. He’s an unyielding force that is never satisfied and will take ANY of his players to task for the smallest of infractions. He brings in talented coachable kids that are open to team play and being coached rather than the one and done superstars which has played a big part in his long term and success over time. Now ranked No.4 and rolling, this is a team to be reckoned with in March and April.
Conclusion: CONTENDER
World Champion handicapper Jeff Allen is coming off a big weekend in college basketball that saw him go unbeaten and cash his NCAAB Game of the Year on Indiana State and improve his current run in college hoops to 33-16. Tonight, Jeff Allen offers a SWAC Super Play and his NBA total of the week. Look for Jeff at his home site of www.vegasscoresandodds.com