Drake vs Missouri State Betting Preview
College basketball content contributor Kyle Kargel gives his Drake vs Missouri State prediction in the Missouri Valley Conference. At the time of posting, the Bulldogs have opened as a 2.5-point home favorite over the road Bears, with the total sitting at 142.5 points.
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Wednesday, February 9 | Missouri Valley Conference Betting Notes |
---|---|
Point Spread: | Drake Bulldogs -2.5 vs Missouri State Bears |
Total: | 142.5 Points |
Game Time: | 8:00pm ET / 5:00pm PT |
Arena: | The Knapp Center in Des Moines, IA |
TV: | Bally Sports Midwest |
Drake vs Missouri State Analysis
It’s coming down to the wire in the Missouri Valley Conference as the top four teams are only separated by a game and a half and two of those four teams square off tonight as Missouri State travels to Drake to take on the Bulldogs. Both teams have been playing equally consistent as of late sporting 7-3 records over their last ten.
Each are coming off losses in their last game to the top two teams in the conference with Missouri State losing to Loyola Chicago 71-62 and Drake dropping their game to Northern Iowa 74-69 in overtime.
What separates these two teams from a better perspective is their records against the spread in which The Bears are 13-11 and Bulldogs 6-15.
Bulldogs Rely on Senior Leadership
When these two teams met back on Jan 2, Drake lost 61-56 at Missouri State. The Bulldogs will try to exact revenge tonight with a win on their home court as each game becomes more and more critical down the stretch.
Drake struggles sharing the ball to produce baskets as the team ranks near the bottom of the country with just under 12 assists per game. While they don’t share the ball much, they do have an efficient offense ranking in the top 80 nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency.
The Bulldogs will have to rely on experience and continuity between a few seniors on the team if they want to pick up this big home win.
Roman Penn, ShanQuan Hemphill and Garrett Sturtz combine to average over 32 points, 15 reb and 5 ast per game while shooting it over 51% from the field. Even if just one of these players has an off game, it could mean defeat for Drake.
Mosley Moseying Along in MVC
As efficient Drake is on offense, Missouri State is just a little better. They rank in the top 30 nationally in many critical offensive categories including adjusted offensive efficiency, effective field goal percentage, turnovers, two point field goal percentage and free throw percentage.
Star guard Isaiah Mosely was non-existent the last time these two met, only putting up seven points on 2-9 shooting. In his last five games though Mosely has averaged over 22 ppg. I don’t see Drake being able to slow him down again in this one and the Bulldogs will have to make up some serious ground with that.
Big men Gaige Prim and Donovan Clay will need to pick it up on the offensive glass as possessions will be critical in this one down the stretch.
Drake vs Missouri State Prediction
Missouri State is a 2.5 point underdog heading into The Knapp Center tonight in Des Moines. Drake ranks in the top 45 nationally when it comes to home court advantage according to KenPom and in their last seven at home are 5-2.
The Bears have already won on the road against MVC leader Loyola Chicago so I don’t see home court advantage playing a big factor here. Isaiah Mosely has another stellar game tonight as he continues his tear in the MVC.
Prediction: Missouri State +2.5
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Drake vs Missouri State Preview from GoldSheet
Meet the not-so-mini version of the Big 12, as there are few soft touches in this version of the Missouri Valley race, and maybe no soft touches at all now that bottom-feeder Evansville went out on the road and took down Indiana State in Terre Haute, the same Sycamores who took out top contender Mizzou State a couple of weeks ago.
Speaking of the Bears, they’re back for another go tonight after an exasperating loss on Sunday vs. Loyola when the Ramblers seemed to get every long bounce and rebound while MSU kept waiting and waiting for top scorer Isaiah Mosley (20.7 ppg) to get hot like he was in the first meeting when scoring 40, but it didn’t happen.
Mosley instead shot a frustrating 4 for 14 from the floor (and 0 for 6 beyond the arc) as the Bears also endured their worst 3-point shooting effort of the season, when canning only 4 of 19 from deep.
As Mosley has been hitting around 44% from downtown and the Bears rank among the national leaders in 3-ball accuracy (17th at 38.1%), a repeat performance would seem unlikely.
The Bulldogs are off of their own maddening loss on Saturday when UNI collared them in OT (the second time in two weeks that matchup required added time); in fact, the only team in the region that’s played more OTs than Drake is the St. Louis Blues, as the Bulldogs are now up to five overtimes for the season.
Like Mizzou State, three-point shooting went sideways on the weekend, nailing just 5 of 26 vs. Ben Jacobson’s Panthers.
But with four double digit scorers, and savvy leadership at the point from senior PG Roman Penn, we wouldn’t expect the shooting slump to endure, even as the first meeting back on Jan. 2 had a similar look for both to last Saturday when they combined to hit only 7 of 36 triples in the Bears’ grinding 61-56 win at Springfield.
With both trending “over” in recent weeks (MSU 7-3 last 10, Drake 5-1/6-0 last six, depending upon when getting down for last Saturday vs. UNI), and very capable of shooting better than each did last weekend, “over” might be an option, though as we doubt Mosley stays as cold as he was vs. Loyola, the Bears might be prepared to pull of the regular-season sweep. Play Missouri St and the Over.
College Basketball Stat Sheet
GoldSheet prepares a daily college basketball stat sheet, which offers a head-to-head comparison for how teams are performing in a number of key areas heading into a game. Check out Wednesday’s sheet, with notes on tonight’s Drake vs Missouri State contest.
NCAAB Odds Screen
Sportsmemo’s live odds screen features up-to-the-minute lines from a variety of offshore and domestic sports books. Track the college basketball point spreads, moneylines, first half lines and betting percentages for all of Wednesday’s NCAAB games, including this Drake vs Missouri State showdown, from your desktop or phone.
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