Bucknell Bison vs. Michigan State Spartans best bets & NCAA odds

Bucknell Bison (25-9 SU 5-5 ATS) vs. Michigan State Spartans (29-4 SU 15-16-2 ATS)
DATE: 7:10PM ET Friday March 16 on CBS
LINE: Michigan State -14.5 Over/Under 147.5

While Michigan State is a Midwest Conference third seed in the Big Dance, many are picking them as the team to beat and Bovada has them tied with Duke for the 3rd best betting odds to win it all.

The Spartans are led by Wooden Award finalist Miles Bridges, who will likely be a lottery pick in the next NBA draft if he decides to leave school. While they won the tough regular season Big 10 title, but lost in the semis of the conference tournament, which snapped their 13-game winning streak.

While Bucknell has obviously played an easier schedule than Michigan State, they have to be pretty confident as they are riding an eight-game win streak and have won 18 of their last 19 games. The Bison have a solid scoring team that ranks tied for 35th in the nation and in their only game facing a top 25 team this season they lost by 12 points on the road facing North Carolina.

At Bovada Michigan is at +750 to win the NCAA Tournament while Bucknell is a long-shot at +50000.

These teams met last in the 2013 season at Michigan State where the Spartans beat the Bison 64-52.

Bucknell vs. Michigan State key betting trends

• Bucknell is 13-6 ATS in their last 19 games.
• Bucknell is 8-3 ATS in their last 11 games against a team with a winning record.
• Bucknell has an Over record of 4-0 in their last 4 non-conference games.
• Michigan State is 2-8-2 ATS in their last 10 games.
• Michigan State is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 non-conference games.
• Michigan State has an Under record of 6-1 in their last 7 games.

Bucknell won the Patriot League conference tournament in their last game beating Colgate 83-54. The Bison dominated the game from the get-go and in four of their last five games, including their last two, they have won by double digits. Zach Thomas 20.3 ppg 9.2 rpg) leads Bucknell in both scoring and rebounding, but has only totaled 11 points in his last two games. The Bison have two other players averaging in double digits in Nana Foulland (15.4 ppg) and Stephen Brown (14.9 ppg), who has gone for 22 points and 26 points, respectively in his last two games.

MSU is pretty stacked and they have to get over their loss to Michigan in the conference tournament and not look past Bucknell. In their 75-64 loss to rival Michigan in the semifinals of the Big 10 tourney the Spartans had a three-point halftime lead, were outscored by 14 points in the 2nd half, and shot 38.1% from the floor. Bridges is averaging 16.9 ppg and 6.9 rpg on the season for MSU and four other players are averaging over 11 ppg.

Bucknell vs. Michigan State betting tip

Bucknell comes into this game on fire, but they face a loaded and balanced Michigan State team that badly beat a North Carolina team that the Bison lost to by double digits early in the season. The Spartans will come out firing on all cylinders from the opening whistle and even though they are giving 14.5 points to a confident Bucknell team they will squash that confidence quickly easily winning and covering the spread at Bovada.