The regular season comes to an end for a couple of Atlantic 10 teams Friday night when the Richmond Spiders travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Duquesne Dukes. Both teams are in the mix for a spot in the NCAA Tournament, but there’s no doubt that both still have work to do to secure an at-large bid if they can’t win the A-10 Tournament.
The Dukes are surely on the outside of the NCAA Tournament picture at the moment. However, Duquesne is coming on strong late in the season, winning three in a row to get to 21-8 overall. At 11-6 overall in league play, the Dukes have a chance to earn a double-bye straight to the quarterfinals in the conference tournament, which would help in their quest to earn an automatic tournament bid. However, a loss on Friday will likely give them a more difficult path in the A-10 Tournament.
Compared to Duquesne, the Spiders are in a little bit better shape, as they sit at 13-4 in conference play and 23-7 overall. With eight wins in their last nine games, Richmond is slowly getting closer to a tournament bid but can’t afford to let up. The good news for the Spiders is they’ve already secured a bye to the quarterfinals of the A-10 Tournament, a tournament they may need to win to feel comfortable on Selection Sunday. Check out all of our college basketball expert picks against the spread and see what our model is picking for tonight.
Needless to say, this is a tough game to call, especially with both teams peaking late in the season and desperate to get more wins before Selection Sunday.
The Citadel Bulldogs take on the Wofford Terriers in the opening round of the Southern Conference tournament Friday. The Terriers are the 7th seed in the conference with a record of 16-15 overall and 68-10 in the conference while the Bulldogs are the 10th seed at 6-23 overall and 0-18 in the conference.
Wofford beat Citadel twice this year, 73-71 and 76-59.
Citadel has had a season they’d probably rather forget and Friday, it might finally come to an end. Citadel, who is no one's college basketball consensus pick, finished the regular season at 6-23 overall and 0-18 in the Southern Conference. But the Bulldogs can still play spoiler and they have been pretty good against the spread on the road, going 9-5-1. This is on a neutral court, but still, it’s a road game for them.
They are ranked No. 326 out of 353 Division 1 teams in the RPI. The Bulldogs average 74.8 points per game, which ranks No. 81 in the nation. They shoot 43.0% from the floor, which is 195th in the country, and 32.0% from three-point range, which is 216th. Defensively, the Bulldogs are really bad. They give up 80.7 points per game, which is 343rd in the country. Opponents shoot 45 percent against them, which is 289th in the nation. They like to chuck, ranking 24th in three-pointers attempted and 35th in three-pointers made. If the threes start falling, who knows what could happen?
Wofford had a horrible finish to their season. They were cruising along at the beginning of February, battling for a conference title, when the wheels came off. They lost their last seven games to finish 16-15 overall and 8-10 in the conference. The Terriers are 11-16-2 against the spread this year. They have an RPI ranking of No. 187. Wofford averages 71.7 points per game, which ranks 156th in the nation. They shoot 45.8 percent from the floor, which is 69th nationally, and 34.6 percent from three-point range, which is 107th. On the defensive side, the Terriers give up 68 points per game, which ranks No. 147 in the country. Wofford ranks 15th in three-pointers made, so offer a perimeter threat just like Citadel.
This is a matchup between two teams that are sinking fast. Citadel has lost 19 straight games and Wofford has lost seven straight. Something has to give here. Who will snap their losing streak and advance?
The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament semifinals get underway as the fourth-seeded Eastern Kentucky Colonels face the top-seeded Belmont Bruins. The winner of this matchup will move on to the finals and play for the OVC Championship.
Eastern Kentucky's road to the Ohio Valley Conference semifinals has been quite bumpy. The Colonels went 3-2 in their first five games, but two of those three wins came against teams that were outside of the NCAA's Division I. Immediately after their first five games, EKU went on an eight-game losing streak. Seven of those eight games were away from home and they went an entire month without playing a game on their home floor. Their fortunes would turn around as soon as they began conference play. Eastern Kentucky went 3-2 to begin the Ohio Valley schedule, beating Tennessee Tech, Eastern Illinois, and SIU-Edwardsville. They then won six games in a row to take their conference record to 9-2.
The Colonels stumbled a bit down the stretch, ending the year by winning just three of their final seven regular season games. Eastern Kentucky finished the regular-season 15-16 with a conference record of 12-6. Their conference record earned them a four seed in the OVC tournament and a bye into the 2nd round. They defeated Tennessee State 58-48 to advance to the OVC semifinal. The Colonels are heavy underdogs to their semifinal opponent, Belmont, who swept them in the regular-season. E. Kentucky lost 87-56 at Belmont and fell 83-70 to Belmont at home.
Belmont is 24-7 overall and 15-3 in Ohio Valley Conference play. The Bruins have won their last 10 games and 15 of their last 17. Their strong play in-conference earned them the top seed in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. Belmont's main Ohio Valley competition, the Murray State Racers, also finished with a 15-3 conference. The Bruins clinched the top seed because of tiebreakers, but many expect Belmont to face Murray State in the conference tournament final. Last season, Belmont made the NCAA tournament (and won a tournament game) as an at-large team. It is not expected that they will receive an at-large bid this season, so they must win the OVC tournament if they want a bid. Check out the most updated college basketball spreads for tonight and make sure you get the best line tonight.
The number two and three seeds in the Ohio Valley Conference face off Friday evening when the third-seeded Austin Peay Governors takes on the second-seeded Murray State Racers for a shot to play for the Ohio Valley Tournament Championship Saturday.
This will be the third matchup of the season between these two top-tier teams, with each team winning at home, most recently Murray State to close the regular season with a 75-61 victory.
Austin Peay (21-11, 15-4 in conference) routed Eastern Illinois in the Ohio Valley quarterfinals and will face a rested Racers squad on a back-to-back. The Governors only played one game with no rest this season back in December and pushed on the spread. Before covering in their opening game against EIU, Austin Peay had two consecutive losses against the spread, including an ATS record of just 2-5-1 in their last eight games. On the year, Austin Peay has gone 17-11 ATS, covering 60.7% of their games. They have struggled to consistently hit the Over this season, going just 12-16 for an Over percentage of 42.9%. As an underdog this year, the Governors have gone just 4-6 ATS, but are 1-0-1 on neutral sites.
On the other side, Murray State (22-8, 15-3 in conference) is coming off three consecutive wins in conference play, going 2-1 ATS in those three victories. The last Murray State loss was back on February 20th on the road at Eastern Illinois where they lost by three points and didn’t cover the 5.5 point spread. On the season, the Racers are 12-12 ATS, covering 50% of their games and are also at 50% on their Over percentage. As a favorite, the Racers are 14-9 this season ATS and are 3-1 when they have a rest advantage over their opponents.
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