NCAA Basketball: Game picks for Day 8 of 2023-24 season

Week 1 of NCAA Basketball is in the books and there were  a ton of upsets. Some were expected and some were not.  It was still great basketball and week 2 is going to see the competition stiffen up.  Is anyone still safe?

A new week begins and if we learned anything during the first week of the NCAA Basketball season it is that no team is safe from an upset. The NIL and the transfer portal has closed the gap between the power five and mid major schools considerably and upsets are happening everyday. There were some more significant upsets on Sunday. Weber State went into Moraga CA and beat Saint Mary’s at home. The WCC favorite now has a loss and Weber State now has a giant resume boosting win. They are the class of the Big Sky. I let everyone know to watch out for UAB over Maryland and Nevada over Washington.

What I did not anticipate was Indiana struggling to beat Army in Assembly Hall. The Big Ten has not been overly impressive aside from a few teams and it is shaping up to be a down year for the league. Especially if they continue to lose some head scratching games to teams they should run out of the gym. The Hoosiers avoided the upset but there is not much to look forward to in Bloomington right now.

On Sunday I went 21-3 overall in my picks. The first week total was 251 games pick correct and 60 misses. It looks like the Non Division 1 games are behind us and the schedule starts to pick up a great deal over the next week. There are Gavitt Games, The Champions Classic and some MTE’s starting over the next week. Today’s picks are below.

St John’s over Michigan

Miami over FIU

Villanova over Penn

American over Siena

Presbyterian over The Citadel

Norfolk State over Hampton

Florida State over Central Michigan

North Florida over South Carolina State

Duquesne over Stony Brook

Butler over ETSU

UMass over Quinnipiac

Pitt over FGCU

South Carolina over VMI

Stephen F. Austin over Northwestern State

Middle Tennessee over Western Carolina

Central Arkansas over Pine Bluff

Houston over Stetson

Nebraska over Rider

Arizona over Southern

Arkansas over Old Dominion

Missouri over SIU Edwardsville

Kansas State over South Dakota State

Missouri State over Oral Roberts

Purdue over Xavier

Santa Barbara over UTEP

California over Bakersfield

Pepperdine over Long Island

The Gavitt Games start tomorrow. Michigan is finally going to get tested by St. John’s and Purdue should win their matchup. Other than that things are going to be very chalky for the big schools and I would expect most of them to cover. Penn plays Villanova at the Palestra and that game has weird vibes as one the Wildcats sweat out. Enjoy the games and check back tomorrow for the Picks of the day.