The Arizona Wildcats and Michigan State Spartans meet in a heavyweight NCAA Basketball showdown in Pennsylvania on Thursday. Arizona has started the 2023/24 season in spectacular style, while the Spartans have suffered a couple of early setbacks and could do with a high-profile win to rebuild confidence. Here we look ahead to the Thanksgiving Day clash and tell you the best value bets in our latest college basketball betting picks.
- What; 2023/24 NCAA Men’s Basketball
- Who; Arizona Wildcats vs. Michigan State Spartans
- Where; Acrisure Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- When; Thursday, November 23rd 2023
- Time; 4 pm ET
The venue is the Acrisure Stadium, for what is known as the Acrisure Classic. The Thanksgiving Day showdown is the final round of the Acrisure Invitational, a multi-day college basketball mini-tournament played in the build-up to the national holiday.
Betting to win the 2024 Championship
Before we get onto match betting, we’re first going to have a quick look at the latest betting to win the 2024 NCAA Basketball Championship. Kansas has for a long time been the sole favorite, but they have now been joined at the top of the betting by Purdue.
The best college basketball betting sites make the Jayhawks and the Boilermakers their joint favorites at +1100.
Behind the two leading college teams are Duke (+1400), UConn (+1600), and Houston (+1600). One of the teams in action tonight, Arizona, is next at +1800. Joining the Wildcats on those odds are Marquette and Kentucky. Michigan State isn’t too far behind in the betting at +2200.
Arizona Wildcats vs. Michigan State Spartans Match Betting
The Wildcats are the in-form team and this means they start the match as the betting favorites. In the latest college basketball odds, the Wildcats are -235 to win on the money line. MI State is +195.
Moving on to the handicap spread, Michigan is receiving a 5.5-point start. To win with the spread, the Spartans are -110 with MyBookie. But they have been backed to -115 with the likes of BetOnline. Arizona is -105 to win and cover the spread.
Onto total points, and both over and under 146.5 is -110. More betting options are available below on our NCAA Basketball betting table.
Wildcats aiming to continue winning streak!
The Wildcats have gotten their 2023/24 season off to a flying start and are currently unbeaten, on a five-match winning streak. Led by head coach Tommy Lloyd, the Wildcats are looking to secure their third Pac-12 Tournament title in three years, and at this early stage of the season, they are already looking good to achieve this.
Most of Arizona’s five wins this season have been comfortable and against teams they would expect to beat. At the McKale Memorial Center, the Wildcats have defeated Morgan State (122-59), the Southern Jaguars (97-59), the Belmont Bruins (100-68), and the Texas-Arlington Mavericks (101-56). But it was on the road that they pulled off their best result of the season. In their second match of the campaign, the Wildcats went to North Carolina and recorded a 78-73 win over the Duke Blue Devils. A result that saw the Wildcats jump from 12th to 3rd in the latest AP Rankings.
#ARIZONAWILDCATS shock the college basketball world with a 78-73 win over #2 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium! Caleb Love put on a show and Arizona fans made their presence felt. #BearDown https://t.co/bSbwfLss85
— The Zona Feed (@TheZonaFeed) November 11, 2023
Mixed start for the Spartans
Tom Izzo’s Spartans team reached the NCAA Tournament for the 25th consecutive season in 2023, the second-longest streak in the top division of men’s basketball. This season, the Spartans have had a mixed start, winning three and losing two.
They have recovered from losing two of their opening three matches by recording wins over Butler (74-54) and Alcorn State (81-49). But the two defeats that preceded the wins must have been alarming for Tom Izzo. The loss at home to James Madison (76-79) on the opening night of the season was a setback for the Spartans and shocked the college basketball world.
They recovered to defeat the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles (74-51) in their second match. But in their third match, they came unstuck again. This time, they lost to the Duke Blue Devils (74-65) in their Champions Classic meeting in Chicago.
FINAL: Duke 74 Michigan State 65
The Blue Devils never surrendered their lead, remaining in front for the entirety of the second half for the top-20 win.https://t.co/Aq8obHzcmD
— Duke Basketball (@dukebasketball) November 15, 2023
Another defeat against the Wildcats will put pressure on Izzo and his team.
Our Arizona Wildcats vs. MI State Betting Picks
Unfortunately for Tom Izzo and the Spartans, another defeat is all that we can see happening in this fixture. We do believe that Michigan State will bounce back. But even if they do perform better today, Arizona is flying high at the moment, and it’s hard to see them not making their record 6 and 0 today.
Under Tommy Lloyd’s leadership, Arizona has a 66-11 record. In their opening five matches this season, five players have scored double figures. This is just the sixth time in 27 years that a Division 1 team has achieved this. The Wildcats are just a team on the up under Lloyd.
The only question seems to be, will they cover the spread? Currently, there are more reasons to believe the Wildcats will cover the spread than they won’t. So we are making a win for Arizona on the handicap line, our betting pick.
We are also going for over 146.5 on the total points line. The Wildcats have covered it in all five matches this season. In their close win over Duke (78-73), they still covered that mark by four points.
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