Points Should Be Easy To Get In Michigan State Vs. UNC

Michigan State vs. North Carolina, 9:30 ET

With Thanksgiving tomorrow, I think a lot about traditions and history. Obviously the tradition of having a turkey on Thanksgiving, and all of the traditional sides is prominent. Football being on television, and even the idea of sharing what you're thankful for as you all sit around the table. The rich history of the day is something to appreciate. Just as the rich history of two great programs, Michigan State and North Carolina, is something to appreciate (and bet on).

The Michigan State Spartans come into this one with a 5-2 record and looking to capture another win here in Maui before they leave. The Spartans have beaten Monmouth, Niagra, Bowling Green, and Samford before coming to this tournament. While here, they also took down Colorado with a big 72-56 win. I somewhat want to say this wasn't a big win, but Colorado did just beat UConn yesterday so who knows, maybe they are a decent team. Their two losses this season came against the best team in the country at the moment, Kansas, and then Memphis, another team that should find their way to the big dance. Memphis was a bit of a shock to me as I thought they would be tired after their battle with UConn, and typically a team falters after beating a big opponent like that. Neither team really shot all that well, but the Spartans left a lot of points on the free throw line and had more turnovers than Memphis. Expect to see Memphis crack the top-25 after this run. 

Tom Izzo agrees to a new contract. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

North Carolina is a ranked squad, coming in as the 12th best team in the nation, with a 4-2 record. I would make the same argument about the Tar Heels as I did Michigan State. They really haven't beaten anyone this season. Their four wins came against Elon, American University, Hawai'i, and Dayton. I somewhat expected them to have a bit of an advantage as Hawai'i was a road game and they could just stay over the weekend and get more used to the gym, time zone, and everything else than any other opponent. They opened the tournament with a game against Dayton and escaped with a two point victory. RJ Davis was great, scoring almost a third of the team's points. The two losses that North Carolina has had were against Kansas - a good loss where they fell by three on the road to the best team in the nation. And to Auburn as they lost by 13 points yesterday. Davis could only find 12 points in that one. 

This has the makings of a bit of a chess match so the close spread doesn't surprise me all that much. I think both teams want to run up and down the court and push the pace as much as possible though. I'm going to take the over in the game at 157.5. I expect the teams to shoot fairly well and maintain what they've been doing for the past couple of games. North Carolina allows teams to get a lot of good looks and their offense is relentless. I'll back the over. 

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