By Dan Rivera
Welcome ladies, gentlemen and fellow NCAA men's college basketball degenerates, to my weekly Summit League review and 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. Both of these conferences play on back-to-back nights vs. the same opponent in order to cut down on travel for COVID purposes.
Don’t be confused about this conference's 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 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.
I went 5-1 on Friday and 1-4 on Saturday on my public plays. On Saturday I loaded up on the North Dakota State/UMKC game, but it didn’t go my way. Nothing very surprising to me this week outside of one half.
Author's Note: Denver, South Dakota State, and Oral Roberts all were off this past weekend from Summit League Conference play because of COVID-19 concerns or having their normally scheduled bye week.
RECAP: North Dakota State Bison (10-7, 8-2) @ UMKC Roos (7-10, 3-5)
- Game 1: NDSU 71-67 (NDSU -3.5, over 120.5)
- Game 2: UMKC 49-47 (UMKC +6, under 122)
- Last year: didn’t play
This game played out exactly how I thought it would. It would start out slow and then pick up. That’s how it exactly started. With 9:29 left in the first half, it was UMKC leading15-9. We then got a flurry of points that ended the half with NDSU up 28-27. We then had a very high scoring second half with NDSU out-scoring UMKC 43-40. NDSU had a down three-point shooting game overall, going just 30% from beyond the arc.
Game 2 played out exactly like Game 1 in the first half - low scoring followed by a flurry of points in the last seven minutes before the halftime break with UMKC up 28-27. Then the second half came, along with my bad day on Saturday. I took three overs for the game - both team totals and the game total. This game was awful to pay attention to in the second half as neither team could buy a bucket with both of them barely hitting the 20-point mark. NDSU did have a chance to tie the game and send it into overtime late, but the visiting Bison missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and lost to the host Roos 49-47 in the end.
RECAP: Omaha Mavericks (2-14, 0-6) @ South Dakota Coyotes (10-6, 8-0)
- Game 1: USD 91-59 (USD -8, over 146)
- Game 2: USD 97-93 (Omaha +10.5, over 146)
- Last year: USD 2-0 SU/ATS, 2-0 O/U
Game 1 was exactly like I thought it would go here as well, and I thought the line of -8 was laughable because USD would win by 15+ easily. I was right, as USD shot 56.9% from the field and 46.7% from three.
Game 2 was interesting to say the least. This was my other loss that came on Saturday. USD shot 60.7% from the field and 50% from three. USD got better shooting wise, but Omaha came in and had by far its best shooting night of the year. The Mavericks shot 57.1% from the field and 58.8% from three. Omaha did put up 83 over Oral Roberts, sure, but Oral Roberts is non-existent. USD plays good defense from three typically, but Omaha got hot here. This game flow was very interesting, as the host Coyotes would go on a run and then Omaha would go on a run, but it was USD that improved to 8-0 in conference play.
RECAP: Western Illinois Leathernecks (3-12, 1-7) @ North Dakota Fighting Hawks (5-14, 4-6)
- Game 1: UND 83-81 (WIU +4, over 140.5)
- Game 2: WIU 99-87 (WIU +4.5, over 144)
- Last year: UND 1-1 SU/ATS, 2-0 O/U
I truly despise betting on UND and just about despite everything with that team. There was nothing interesting about either game here. Both teams stink and defense was seemingly optional in both games as both overs easily hit. We now end the weekend with these two teams sporting a combined 8-26 record.