Minnesota @ Michigan St. preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 13, 2018 ) Michigan St 87, Minnesota 57

Michigan State looks to snap a three-game losing streak when it hosts Minnesota in a Big Ten Conference contest Saturday afternoon. The No. 11 Spartans had won 13 straight before dropping their last three, including a 79-74 setback to Illinois on Tuesday, while the Golden Gophers come into the contest having dropped two in a row, including 56-51 to Wisconsin on Wednesday.

Junior guard Amir Coffey leads the Minnesota offense with 15.8 points per game, while senior forward Jordan Murphy is averaging 14.9 points and a Big Ten-best 12.1 rebounds. Coach Richard Pitino is hoping to find more consistency from his team's offense after the Gophers scored 92 and 86 points in back-to-back wins in late January, followed by 63 and 51 points in the two losses since. Michigan State relies on junior guard Cassius Winston (team-high 18.9 points, league-leading 7.3 assists) to power the league's top-scoring offense (82 points), but he seems to be wearing down a bit in recent games. Burly junior forward Nick Ward (15.2 points, 6.6 rebounds) is a load to handle in the paint, though he's struggled a bit over his last five games, averaging 10.4 points and 5.0 rebounds.

TV: 2 p.m. ET, ESPN

ABOUT MINNESOTA (16-7, 6-6 Big Ten): Murphy continues to deal with physical defensive attention well, leading the Big Ten in free throw attempts per game with 7.6. He'll get his share of physical play against Michigan State, with Ward, Kenny Goins and Xavier Tillman all ready to mix it up with anyone in pursuit of a rebound, and coach Tom Izzo will certainly have his team aware of Murphy's prowess on the glass. With more than a third of his points this season coming from the free-throw line, Murphy has gotten used to the contact, and if he can get some of the Spartans' big men in foul trouble, that could go a long way toward an upset victory.

ABOUT MICHIGAN STATE (18-5, 9-3): With the finality of Joshua Langford's season-ending injury finally kicking in for the Spartans, Izzo has juggled the starting job in place of Langford between freshman Aaron Henry and junior Kyle Ahrens, mainly because of Ahrens' recurring injury problems. Ahrens started the loss to Illinois and had a fairly productive game (11 points, seven rebounds, three assists) in 34 minutes, while Henry, who had started the previous six contests, struggled coming off the bench, going scoreless and committing four turnovers in 14 minutes. Izzo will have to figure out which player gives the Spartans the best spark at the start of games and which can handle coming off the bench as he tries to replace Langford's contributions.

TIP-INS

1. Minnesota senior G Dupree McBrayer is one point shy of becoming the 44th Gopher player to reach the 1,000-point mark in his career.

2. The Spartans ranked No. 4 in the country in field-goal percentage defense (37.1 percent) entering Friday.

3. Michigan State won the last meeting by 30 points in February 2018, but three of the last seven contests have gone to overtime.

PREDICTION: Michigan State 87, Minnesota 72