Michigan vs Rutgers Pick – Basketball Predictions & Odds 3/9/23

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the Michigan Wolverines meet in college basketball action from the United Center on Thursday afternoon as part of the Big Ten conference tournament. Let’s dive into the odds, injuries, matchup history and make a prediction for this game.

Odds

Michigan is listed as a 3.5-point favorite with the total for this game set at 133.5 points.

Injuries

For Rutgers, Mawot Mag is out for the season with a knee injury while Michigan has Isaiah Barnes listed as out indefinitely with an undisclosed injury.

Matchup History

Michigan’s 58-45 win over Rutgers back on February 23^rd, 2023, made it back-to-back wins and 12 wins in 13 all-time meetings between these two teams.

Trends

Rutgers is 1-6-1 ATS in their last 8 games overall and 1-4-1 ATS in their last 6 games against a team with a winning record while the under is 5-1 in their last 6 games against a team with a winning record. Michigan is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 36-15-2 ATS in their last 53 neutral site games while the over is 5-2 in their last 7 games following an ATS win.

Pick

I’m backing Rutgers here. I’m not overly enthused with either team’s form coming into this game, but I think Rutgers is in the better spot. Both have had some form of rest coming into this one, but the Wolverines finished the year with back-to-back OT losses and I just don’t trust their form coming into this game. Rutgers has a rock solid defense that can slow down a team like Michigan and I think that’s enough to at worst get a cover for the Scarlet Knights here.