NCAA Basketball: Picks for Day 32 of 2024-25 season
By Bryan Mauro
It was a bad day to be a top 5 team yesterday. All three that were in action lost. Creighton blew out Kansas in Omaha. I had picked that win a few weeks ago after they lost to Nebraska. The Bluejays got the signature non-conference win they were desperate for. UConn finally got a great win over Baylor. The Huskies might get rolling now. Seton Hall avoided another upset with a win over NJIT, and finally, Marquette lost to Iowa State. DePaul finally lost to Texas Tech. Hilton Coliseum is one of the hardest places to win at and Iowa State rarely loses there. Marquette is no longer undefeated. Overall, it was the second good day in a row for the Big East.
The SEC continued their domination of the ACC in the SEC/ACC Challenge. Alabama destroyed North Carolina at the Dean Dome, Florida blew out Virginia, Mississippi State blew out Pittsburgh, Texas beat NC State, Vanderbilt blew out Virginia Tech, and finally, in the game of the night, Duke finally got their signature win in the non-conference when they beat Auburn at Cameron. That gives the ACC two total wins in the event, and both were notable. The Big Ten had some notable results for conference play last night, too. Maryland beat Ohio State by 24, Michigan State destroyed Minnesota, and Oregon beat USC. The Trojans blew a late lead in that game.
Yesterday I went 39-17 in my picks. That gives me a 31-day total of 1,009-354 overall. It was going to be hard to top the last two nights and the Thursday schedule doesn’t have much but does have a few gems in there, but it is mostly games between mid-majors. Big Ten Conference play, Missouri Valley Conference play, and Horizon League Conference play continue. Southland Conference and Big West Conference play begin. Picks for day 32, December 5, 2024, are below.
Lipscomb over SEMO
Fort Wayne over Detroit Mercy
Southern Mississippi over Alabama State
Purdue over Penn State
Samford over South Carolina State
NC Central over Radford
Longwood over Maryland Eastern Shore
Oakland over Wright State
UT Rio Grande Valley over Stephen F. Austin
Nicholls over Southeastern Louisiana
Incarnate Word over Northwestern State
Drake over Valpo
Arkansas State over Jackson Stat
Texas A&M Corpus Christi over Lamar
Houston Christian over East Texas A&M
Milwaukee over Cleveland State
Xavier over TCU
UC Davis over Cal Poly
San Francisco over Saint Louis
Northridge over Riverside
UC San Diego over Santa Barbara
UC Irvine over Bakersfield
Fullerton over Long Beach
Next. Feast Week Winners and Losers. Feast Week Winners and Losers. dark
There are only two games between power conference teams today, and the game of the day takes place in Fort Worth when Xavier travels to play TCU. The Horned Frogs struggled early this year, and I don’t think they are as bad as they look. They are in desperate need of a big win it will be close. Penn State has Purdue coming to State College. The Nittany Lions are favored, but I don’t see them beating Purdue. Watch out for the South Carolina State and Samford games and the North Carolina Central and Radford games. The HBCUs typically don’t get too many home games outside of the conferences, and when they do, they usually win, so they have two of them today, and both teams are capable of winning those games. Enjoy the hoops.