In the days after Selection Sunday for the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament, we read a lot about how the Indiana State Sycamores had gotten the biggest snub. They had a 28-6 record (17-3 MVC) with an electric offense. However, the committee decided to send six teams from the Mountain West Conference and include a Virginia team that looked ugly through most of ACC play. The SEC was also revealed as an overrated team. The Sycamores looked a bit ridiculous at halftime of their first-round NIT matchup, trailing a bad SMU team at home at halftime. Then they delivered a comeback and haven’t looked back since. They beat Utah in the NIT semifinal and now will take on the Seton Hall Pirates on Thursday at the NIT Championship in the Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, with tipoff set for 7:00 pm Eastern time. Read on to get our online betting preview.
NCAA Men’s College Basketball NIT Championship Preview Seton Hall Pirates vs Indiana State Sycamores
When: Wednesday, April 3, 2024, 7:00 pm ET
Where: Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis
TV: ESPN
Radio: No National Broadcast
Streaming: ESPN+
NIT Odds: Indiana State -3 / O/U 158.5
Why should you bet on the Seton Hall Pirates?
Seton Hall manages to play a physical brand of defense without getting into foul trouble; the Pirates posted the 26th lowest free throw rate in the nation. While Seton Hall is turnover-prone, the Sycamores were only 279th in the nation in defensive turnover rate. The Pirates can dominate the paint as they ranked 19th in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage. Their offense is pretty pedestrian, which is one reason why the point total for this game is so low.
You’ll want to keep your eye on Kadary Richmond. He led the Pirates to that blowout win over Georgia in the other semifinal, with 15 points, nine boards, six assists, and three steals. Richmond will be expected to generate offense against an ISU defense that is tough on the inside, even though their games are high-scoring. ISU plays at a high tempo, but if you like the Pirates here, you see them slowing things down to a much more grinding rhythm.
Seton Hall Odds to Win Today
Why should you put your money on the Indiana State Sycamores?
We’ll see how well the Sycamore fan base travels as Hinkle Fieldhouse is about an hour away from the ISU campus in Terre Haute. They have the nation’s best two-point offense, and they should be able to take advantage of the Pirates’ tendency to turn the ball over at the wrong time. They dropped 101 points on SMU in the first round of the NIT, and they just scored 100 against Utah in this same arena in their semifinal win.
The key player to watch for Indiana State is Robbie Avila, sometimes known as “Cream Abdul-Jabbar” and at other times known as “Larry Blurred,” an homage to the Indiana native who went to ISU to show his dissatisfaction with Bobby Knight, who tried mightily to get him to play for the University of Indiana. He doesn’t look like a prototypical center, but he leads the Sycamores in scoring and had a 26-10 night against Utah. He also dished out three assists, and nine of his points came from three-pointers. He will face some tall competition inside against Seton Hall, but he can also drift outside and burn the defense.
Indiana State Odds to Win Today
Final Score and Prediction
Indiana State has been torching defenses all season long, and their NIT run has shown they can score handily against a variety of attacks and get stops when they need them. The Pirates had a tougher grind in their conference schedule, but I don’t think they can keep up with ISU here. I predict a final score of Indiana State 90, Seton Hall 82 – so take the Sycamores to cover and take the over.
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