Salute to Salukis

Coming off a clean 3-0 sweep on Saturday, while bagging 1 unit on the Seahawks alternate line -6.5 on Super Sunday. Good times...

Southern Illinois +2: Think the Salukis, who are finally close to being fully healthy, are ready to go on a run. They've had a gauntlet of a conf schedule and done reasonably well, nabbing ROAD victories over league-leading Belmont and 3rd place Illinois State along the way. KenPom rankings would seem to suggest they are better than their 4-9 record as they sit a solid 122nd ahead of teams like Troy, UNLV, Winthrop, North Dakota State and Penn State. Indiana State, meanwhile, are 3-10 (203rd in KenPom) and only just halted a five-time skid by beating cellar-dwelling Evansville. They are also missing their big man in the middle Derek Vorst, which will be a big factor in a slugfest like this. I think the Salukis go on the road and get this done SU but WTH, I will take the 2 points for 1 unit while dropping about a fifth of that on the ML. 

It's the time of year where we starting thinking about the conference tournaments, battles for seeding and all that fun stuff.

But tonight I am focusing on the Southland Conference ... where seeding is a factor to be sure, but also, perhaps more importantly, only 8 of the 12 teams qualify for the conference tournament.

And it's setting up to be an interesting battle for the 8th and final berth with 5 teams in the hunt for one spot (though other teams could be sucked into the battle too if they lose 2 or 3 games in a row).

Going into some key games tonight, it looks like this:

8. Incarnate Word 5-10

------------------------------

9 East Texas AM 5-10

10 Houston Chr. 4-11

11 SE Louisiana 4-11

12 N'Western St. 4-11

The big game of the night has Incarnate Word -1.5 going to SE Louisiana. IW won the first meeting 79-70 at home.

N'Western St -7.5 goes to Lamar, who currently sit 7th at 7-8. Lamar won the first meeting 76-61 on the road.

Real ugly matchups for the other 2 teams as East Texas +14.5 goes to league-leading SF Austin, while Houston Chr. -20.5 goes to 2nd place McNeese.

The matchup I like is N'Western St +7.5. Other than that loss, NWST has been close in just about every game, including against SFA and McNeese. I think they get the cover tonight, with a possible shot at the SU win.

Tourney format: 3rd and 4th place teams get a bye into Round 2. That is also a good battle with UTRGV, TAMCC and Nicholls all sitting at 9-6, with UTRGV going to Nicholls tonight. 1 of these 3 teams will have to play in Round 1 when all is said and done. I think UTRGV is the best of these teams and I do believe they avenge a home loss by winning at Nicholls tonight.

SFA and McNeese will finish 1st and 2nd and get byes into Round 3.

Verdict: Tonight I am playing Northwestern State +7.5 for 0.5 units. May play a few others but not going to make them posted play at this time.

BOL today rangers. 

@Coloneljim

 Thank you sir ... took the day off work, non-production day anyway, so locking in on college hoops plays!!

@rangersmets

 Going to play Southern Illinois 1st half....

Nice write up....

Drake -2.5: DeVries is gone, and the 2025 NCAA berth now ancient history, but Drake is still a very proud program in the MVC. The 6-8 conference record, however, is nothing to be proud of and I look for them to finish strong going into the conference tourney. Drake is always a tough out at home and have an impressive 101-90 win over 2nd place Murray St to their credit. Valpo, expected in the pre-season polls to battle Evansville for last place, has been a nice surprise at 6-7, but I look for the Bulldogs to take care of the upstart visitor at this short line tonight in Des Moines. 0.75 units.

GL RM

SO ILL 

Getting this one early for Tuesday:

Auburn -2.5: Tigers can't afford another home loss after collapsing in the second half on Saturday against 'Bama. Just think this team is a whole lot better than 11th in the SEC and now that they are squarely on the bubble for an NCAA berth, I think they come out meaning business against a very good Vanderbilt team. The Neville Arena is always a raucous environment and I think Pearl Jr's squad will rise to the challenge and get a badly needed win. Didn't want to wait around for this to get to 3.5 or even 4 by tomorrow. 0.75 units.

that short line on the drake game is scary   drake has won like 8 in a row vs them  so why 3????

Good luck rangersmets 

@rangersmets

 Seeing Auburn-4....still a play?

@lmb4321

 I would, my projections had Auburn by between 5-8

Good luck either way ... 

Southern Illinois +2 ... 

Southern Illinois ML ... 

Northwestern St +7.5 ... 

Drake: ???

Glad I didn't take Illinois State -10.5, as I did give it some thought but it seemed like a bit much on the road. Just a team that always leaves you wanting more. Ton of talent on this team, been pretty much injury-free for the most part, projected to win the MVC with 14 of a possible 20 first-place votes, and here they are getting clocked by Evansville, who are in last place - right where they were supposed to be. Just hard to figure sometimes.

RM heating up good luck sir 

Drake leads most of the way, fades down the stretch. 

Another one for Tuesday. I will copy Tuesday's plays over to a new thread in the morning:

St. Joe's -4.5: Hawks have been quietly coming on with 7 wins in their last 9 games (only losses by 9 at VCU and by 8 at G. Mason) to get to 7-4 and 4th place in the A-10. Right now that gets them nicely to the cutoff for a double-bye in the conference tournament. Fordham stumbling along in their usual spot near the bottom of the conference as expected in the pre-season polls. Scoring is once again a big problem for the Rams, and now they're likely to again be without Jack Whitbourn who averages 8.4 PPG and 8.4 RPG -- a 6-11, 250 pound beast who is the only true centre on the roster. I see Joe's cruising to an 8-12-point victory at home. 0.75 units.

@rangersmets

 Seeing St Joe's-5....on both....