Betting the pay-for-play games in college basketball is always fun, especially when the little guys are coming in with a ton of confidence.
UMass-Lowell comes into tonight’s game against Rhode Island with an 11-1 record. They have a quality win on the road against UMass and their only loss is to Rutgers, who beat No. 8 Indiana by 15 points earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Rhode Island (3-7) hasn’t had a solid game all year.
The two teams also have a common opponent in Brown. Rhode Island lost that game. UMass-Lowell beat Brown by 11.
When smaller schools play bigger ones, sometimes the minnows are buoyed by one major offensive threat. That can creates problems down the stretch, when the bigger team focuses its defensive efforts on the one superstar and makes the rest of his teammates sink shots.
For UMass-Lowell, that's not the case. Ayinde Hakim and Abdouk Karim Coulibaly score the bulk of the teams points, but at least three other players are capable of scoring double digits any given night.
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The game will be won or lost at the three-point line. UMass-Lowell shoots 39.3% behind the arc, good for 23rd in the nation. Do note that Rhode Island is 29th in three point defense, holding their opponents to 27.6%.
But Rhode Island has had some awful games on the glass. Meanwhile, UMass Lowell are 12th in the nation in rebounding, which means second chance points are going to be hard to come by.
With these factors in mind, I like the River Hawks here. BetMGM has Lowell as 1.5 point favorites (-115), which seems way too generous given how the squads have played so far. Take them to win another impressive game on the road.
