A few Mountain West schools have some big NCAA Basketball matchups on this Wednesday night. Will the league have a good night overall?
The schedule was not great last night but there were a lot of games with tremendous upset potential. A lot of Power 5 schools played trap games that were going to be uncomfortable for a while. Duke was in a battle for a half with Hofstra, Cincinnati was in a battle with Bryant for a half, and Oregon was in a battle with Cal Baptist for a half. Texas Tech only beat Oral Roberts by 6 points in Lubbock. Maryland finally made some shots against Alcorn State. Austin Peay came back from 17 down on the road to beat Southern Illinois. Green Bay had an impressive win over Illinois Chicago. The Phoenix are playing well under new coach Sundance Wicks.
Yesterday I went 18-4 in my picks. That gives me a 37 day total of 1,121-410 overall. As I mentioned earlier this week it is Finals week at most colleges, so the games are not going to be great during the week. That is the case again on Wednesday. Four ranked teams play today, but the rest of the schedule is not great overall. There are not too many games that have upset potential today but there are still a couple of good games on the schedule. Picks for day 37 December 13, 2023, are below.
Rice over Incarnate Word
Norfolk State over Stony Brook
Florida Atlantic over Florida International
Dartmouth over Boston University
North Alabama over Charleston Southern
Appalachian State over Queens
Toledo over Marshall
Mississippi State over Murray State
Little Rock over UTSA
Northwestern over Chicago State
Milwaukee over Longwood
Alabama A&M over UAB
Louisville over Arkansas State
LSU over Alabama State
Liberty over Tennessee State
Auburn over UNC Asheville
McNeese over Southern Mississippi
Louisiana over Eastern Kentucky
Creighton over UNLV
BYU over Denver
San Francisco over Seattle
Nevada over Weber State
Santa Clara over Utah State
Even with a schedule that is dominated by ranked teams being highly favored in their games there are still some good games. Utah State and Santa Clara is one of the best games of the day. McNeese and Southern Mississippi is a good game. It is also the return of McNeese head coach Will Wade. Wade was suspended for the first 10 games of the year stemming from his role in the FBI investigation while he was at LSU. Longwood takes their 10-1 record on the road to a Milwaukee team that is much better than their record shows. That is one that could be an upset.
Watch for Alabama A&M as they get a home game against UAB. SWAC teams love home games and usually win them against better competition. Enjoy the games and See you tomorrow.