I am back with the picks of the day. I needed a few days to take a mental reset and get my thoughts back in order after some emotional days. The last time we talked was Wednesday morning and a lot has happened since then. No one on the bubble seems to want to win. In the last couple of days.
Nebraska lost to Rutgers, Mississippi State lost to Kentucky, Ole Miss lost to LSU, Miami lost to Florida State, Texas lost to UCF, Nevada lost to San Diego State, Memphis lost to South Florida, and Oregon lost to Colorado. That is a lot of movement on the Bubble and some teams are going to need to win some games to stay in the tournament and find their signature wins.
On Wednesday I went 26-18 on my picks which brought my 71-day total to 2,028-779 overall. There are a lot of games today with a ton of NCAA tournament implications. A lot of bubble teams play today and wins are going to help them immensely. The games are getting more intense as we get closer to February because the games mean more. Every game matters at this point in the season. Picks for day 74 January 20, 2024, are below.
Baylor over Texas
Marquette over St. John’s
Creighton over Seton Hall
Syracuse over Miami
NC State over Virginia Tech
Wake Forest over Louisville
Ohio State over Penn State
UMass over George Washington
IUPUI over Robert Morris
Dayton over Rhode Island
Cincinnati over Oklahoma
Gardner-Webb over Winthrop
San Diego State over Boise State
Arkansas over South Carolina
Fordham over Loyola-Chicago
The Citadel over VMI
New Hampshire over UMBC
Denver over North Dakota
Omaha over Kansas City
Navy over Army
Purdue over Iowa
Houston over UCF
Tennessee over Alabama
TCU over Iowa State
Arizona State over USC
Temple over Rice
Missouri State over Illinois State
Bradley over Belmont
Radford over SC Upstate
NC A&T over William & Mary
Monmouth over Hampton
Drexel over Delaware
Colgate over Boston University
George Mason over St. Bonaventure
Holy Cross over Loyola MD
Lafayette over Bucknell
Bowling Green over Western Michigan
Ball State over Miami Ohio
Western Carolina over Furman
Cleveland State over Fort Wayne
Yale over Dartmouth
Princeton over Columbia
Maine over NJIT
UMass Lowell over Binghamton
South Dakota over South Dakota State
North Dakota State over Oral Roberts
Brown over Cornell
Nebraska over Northwestern
North Carolina over Boston College
Saint Joseph’s over Duquesne
UAB over East Carolina
SMU over Tulsa
Longwood over Presbyterian
Georgia State over Georgia Southern
Jacksonville over Kennesaw State
Southern over Grambling
Mississippi State over Vanderbilt
Southern Mississippi over Troy
Kansas over West Virginia
Arizona over UCLA
Utah State over Fresno State
NC Central over SC State
Delaware State over Maryland Eastern Shore
Florida State over Clemson
Alcorn State over Texas Southern
North Texas over Charlotte
Valpo over UIC
Towson over Campbell
Butler over DePaul
Pine Bluff over Florida A&M
LSU over Texas A&M
Davidson over Richmond
Air Force over New Mexico
Howard over Norfolk State
Morgan State over Coppin State
Ohio over Eastern Michigan
UNC Greensboro over Wofford
Youngstown State over Detroit Mercy
South Alabama over Louisiana
Abilene Christian over UT Arlington
Utah Valley over Utah Tech
Santa Barbara over Fullerton
Northern Arizona over Sacramento State
Western Illinois over Tennessee State
Morehead State over Southern Indiana
Lindenwood over Eastern Illinois
Appalachian State over Coastal Carolina
Southeastern Louisiana over Texas A&M Commerce
Texas A&M Corpus Christi over Nicholls
Lamar over Houston Christian
SEMO over SIU Edwardsville
Washington State over California
American over Lehigh
Lipscomb over North Alabama
New Orleans over Northwestern State
North Florida over Queens
Jacksonville State over Louisiana Tech
UC Davis over UC Irvine
Texas State over Arkansas State
Austin Peay over Central Arkansas
Kentucky over Georgia
Texas Tech over BYU
Georgia Tech over Virginia
Drake over Evansville
UNC Wilmington over Charleston
Samford over Mercer
Penn over Harvard
James Madison over Marshall
McNeese over Incarnate Word
Northern Kentucky over Green Bay
Jackson State over Prairie View
Colorado over Oregon State
Kansas State over Oklahoma State
High Point over Charleston Southern
Elon over Northeastern
FGCU over Stetson
Santa Clara over Portland
Wright State over Milwaukee
Old Dominion over Louisiana-Monroe
Bryant over Albany
Bethune over Mississippi Valley State
Eastern Kentucky over Bellarmine
Liberty over Sam Houston
UC San Diego over Hawaii
Nevada over Wyoming
UT Rio Grande over Tarleton
Duke over Pitt
Northern Iowa over Southern Illinois
Missouri over Florida
Cal Baptist over Southern Utah
Northridge over Riverside
Northern Colorado over Portland State
Eastern Washington over Idaho State
Auburn over Ole Miss
Stanford over Washington
New Mexico State over Middle Tennessee
Western Kentucky over UTEP
Montana State over Montana
Weber State over Idaho
San Francisco over Saint Mary’s
Pepperdine over LMU
Gonzaga over San Diego
Grand Canyon over Seattle
Bakersfield over Cal Poly
There are a lot of games tomorrow and there are so many that have NCAA tournament implications. At this point, it is just important for teams to start stacking wins and win as many games as possible. Nebraska and Northwestern are two teams who have almost the same resumes it is in Lincoln, so give the edge to the Huskers even without star Juwan Gary.
Tennessee and Alabama is the game of the day. One team loves to play defense and loves to slow it down on offense while the other team is going to play really fast and take as many threes as possible. Something is going to give. The best mid-major game of the day is between San Francisco and Saint Mary’s the winner of that game will be in outright first place in the West Coast Conference. There is a lot to like with this slate of games today.