Northern Iowa at Michigan State

The Northern Iowa Panthers became the ultimate bracket buster taking down the top seed Kansas Jayhawks. This team is going to remind a lot of teams of Davidson, but in fact they are more like the George Mason team that ran to the Final Four. They are experienced, tourney tested and good. They are one of the best defensive teams in the country and 24 of their last 30 opponents could not top the 60 mark. Michigan State took a severe blow losing Kalin Lucas to an Achilles injury. He was both the leading scorer and assist leader. That will force the Spartans into being more defensive minded, which they are good at, but they will face a similar defensive-minded club. The difference is losing your assist leader as well as your leading scorer that will to be difficult for the Spartans to overcome. I expect a low-scoring game and will go with Northern Iowa and the UNDER, who can match-up defensively vs. anyone and has the offensive edge.