A look at the live scoring results from the NCAA Tournament First Round game between Middle Tennessee and Michigan State.
Middle Tennessee may not have won the regular season Conference-USA title, but that doesn’t mean the Blue Raiders are a slouch. They won the conference tournament and finished the year with a 24-9 record. After losing 3-of-4 games near the end of the season, Middle Tennessee finished the year with a six-game win streak, heading into the tourney on a high note.
The Blue Raiders don’t boast an overwhelming offensive attack, nor do they have a great defense, but a guy like Giddy Potts can fill it up from long range and make teams pay for not playing tight on the perimeter. Potts leads the team with 15.0 points to go along with 5.5 rebounds per game and he shoots over 50 percent from three-points range.
Michigan State is one of those teams that was seemingly under-seeded by the selection committee. Ending the year as one of the nation’s hottest teams, winning 13-of-14 games, the Spartans were ranked the No. 2 team in the country and ended up winning the Big Ten Tournament only to miss out on a No. 1 seed — somehow.
That should make Tom Izzo’s team hungry for a deep run, and no one should ever count out this program in March. Denzel Valentine might just be the national player of the year frontrunner and he’s averaging 19.4 points, 7.6 assists and 7.6 rebounds while shooting 45 percent from deep. Watch out for Bryn Forbes, who shoots 48 percent from long range, and Matt Costello, who’s a constant double-double threat, as well.
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