By Dan Rivera
Welcome ladies, gentlemen and fellow NCAA men's college basketball degenerates, to my weekly Summit League conference recap! I take a lot of pride in both breaking down and handicapping these CBB plays, simply because you can find some real edges in the market (along with other small conferences), and that's why you hear me constantly covering them in the podcast and on Twitter as well. This will be the intro in every article, and I will also be recapping/reviewing the Horizon League as well. Both of these conferences play on back-to-back nights vs. the same opponent to cut down on travel for COVID purposes.
Don’t be confused about the schedule when you go to bet these games, as each of these conferences mainly play Friday/Saturday or Saturday/Sunday. Both articles will be out by Wednesday night (Thursday at the latest) every week through March Madness. Personally, I handicap every conference game and keep a lot of my work private. I do this because it forces me to look at every conference game and it helps me find real holes, since we are somewhat limited on our weekly choices. If you have any questions, thoughts or insights for now and/or going forward, feel free to contact me on Twitter any time @DanRivera228.
Author's Note: I went 2-4 on Friday and 4-1 on Saturday, one bad beat away from the clean sweep on Summit/Horizon League plays. Summit League play was particularly interesting this weekend after we had some very uneventful games the weekend before. UMKC was the only team that had its bye this weekend.
RECAP: North Dakota Fighting Hawks (6-15, 5-7) @ Denver Pioneers (2-13, 1-7)
- Game 1: North Dakota OT 85-82 (North Dakota -2.5, over 139)
- Game 2: Denver OT 85-81 (Denver +2, over 143.5)
- Last year: North Dakota 2-0 SU, 1-1 ATS, 2-0 O/U
Let’s start with a quick "recap" both of these teams stink, and this was right in par with what I expected, which was a pair of coin flip games. That is exactly what we got, too, and if you had the under in game two of this weekend series, then you were on the right side, as it went under by 5.5 points for two halves but went over in overtime. No main takeaways from either team here. I didn’t bet Denver in game two, despite knowing that the Pioneers shouldn’t have been dogs at home after barely losing in game one, 85-82.
RECAP: Western Illinois Leathernecks (5-12, 3-7) @ Omaha Mavericks (2-16, 0-8)
- Game 1: WIU 85-77 (WIU +4, over 153.5)
- Game 2: WIU 75-73 (WIU +3, under 152)
- Last year: Omaha 2-0 SU, 1-1 ATS, 2-0 O/U
This is another game where I knew better - this line stunk - but I talked myself out of both games because Omaha has been just atrocious this year and the Leathernecks are somewhat "okay" on the road. Game one didn’t surprise me much, but game two was my lone loss on Saturday, one that should have gone way over the 152 total. With about 5:30 left in the game, Omaha was up 68-67 and we were well on our way into the 160's. But approximately two minutes later, the next basket would be scored. With 3:25 left, the score was WIU 69-68. Then, with 3:14 left, we get some free throws to give Omaha a 70-69 lead. We are well in the high 90% range to win this over at this point, and we then get some more FT’s to put WIU up 71-70. Still a high 90% to cash the over. We don’t get another basket, however, until the 0:27 mark. This was by far my worst Summit League bad beat, probably the worst bad beat of the college basketball year.
RECAP: Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (10-8, 7-3) @ North Dakota State Bison (11-9, 9-3)
- Game 1: NDSU 61-54 (NDSU -3.5, under 142.5)
- Game 2: ORU 80-74 (ORU +3.5, over 140)
- Last year: NDSU 2-1 SU/ATS, 3-0 O/U
This was our first interesting matchup of the weekend in Summit League Conference play, with two distinct games and also a part of my overall bad Friday. I gave the over for game one and it went way under. Game one was also a very poor shooting performance for both teams. Both North Dakota State and Oral Roberts shot well below their season averages, going below 38% from the field overall The Bison had an atrocious night from three as well, shooting 19.2%. It wasn’t because of the visiting Golden Eagles' defense though - the Bison just couldn’t hit anything. Game two was actually what I had expected game one to be - high scoring. Both teams shot above 43% from the field in game two and the Bison had a better shooting night from three, going 26.9% from beyond the arc. It was still below their season average of 32.4% though, and game two simply came down to who had the better three-point shooting night. That was the Golden Eagles shooting 32.1% from downtown. The host Bison were sloppy on turnovers too, turning it over 11 times vs. the Golden Eagles' 4. You can’t turn over the ball that much and expect to win.
RECAP: South Dakota Coyotes (11-7, 9-1) @ South Dakota State Jackrabbits (11-4, 5-1)
- Game 1: South Dakota 64-56, (USD +6.5, under 152)
- Game 2: SDSU (SDSU -6.5, over 149
- Last year: South Dakota 1-1 SU, 2-0 ATS, 2-0 O/U
This weekend series follows exactly like the North Dakota State/Oral Roberts series - a very low scoring game one and a game two that was on par with what I expected. Game one was a brick fest, with both teams shooting 35% from the field and 25% from three. This game was awful to watch offensively. Both defenses are below average, and still, neither team could hit anything. This game was a hard hit to my bank roll too, as all my bets for this game seemingly never have a chance of winning. Game two was what I expected in terms of points, and to my surprise, the visiting Coyotes once again shot poorly from beyond the arc. They shot 18.8% from three to be exact and were still up 44-38 after the first half, which I didn’t expect either. In the second half the Jackrabbits poured it on the Coyotes, outscoring them 51-34. Both teams shot above 44.5% from the field here, in addition to the Coyotes committing 17 turnovers. This was high for a team who was elite in offensive turnovers coming into this game, and I am surprised that the Coyotes only lost by 11 despite the very poor three-point shooting night plus all of the turnovers as well.