NIT Picks: Davidson vs North Carolina State 3/18/21 College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions

The NC State Wolfpack battle the Davidson Wildcats Thursday in NIT college basketball action from UNT Coliseum in Texas. 

NC State enters this NIT matchup at 13-10 overall. The Wolfpack had a five-game win streak snapped by Syracuse on Wednesday. As for Davidson, they’re sitting at 13-8 so far. The Wildcats are 2-1 in the last three and coming off a loss to VCU. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place. 

NC State has had a sketchy year so far, but the good news is that they were able to get a nice win streak going later in the regular season. The Wolfpack were sitting at 8-9 before wins over Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Virginia, Pitt again and Notre Dame. Then came the Wednesday loss to Syracuse. 

In the 89-68 loss to the Orange in the ACC Tournament Wednesday, Derek Funderburk led the team on 14 points with six rebounds. Manny Bates added 12 points and seven boards, and Dereon Seabron had 11 points with eight rebounds. 

Over on the Davidson side, they were sitting at 6-5 back in early January before rattling off five straight wins. Since then it’s been a 2-3 stretch for the Wildcats. They’ve got wins over VCU and George Mason with losses to St. Bonaventure and VCU in that stretch. 

In the loss to VCU 64-52 in their last outing, Davidson’s Lee Hyun-jung put up 13 points with four assists and one rebound, while Kellan Grady had 13 points with three boards and three assists. Luka Brajkovic added 10 points with nine rebounds as well. 

The Wolfpack are 1-4 ATS in their last five neutral-site games as an underdog and 2-6-1 ATS in their last nine after a straight-up loss. NC State is 4-1 ATS in the last five as an underdog and the over is 5-1 in their last six overall. 

Meanwhile, the Wildcats are 8-2 ATS in their last 10 after an ATS loss and 3-7 ATS in their last 10 neutral-site games. Davidson is 1-6 ATS in their last seven Thursday games and the under is 5-1 in their last six overall. 

PICK: I’m going to take NC State in this one. The Wolfpack had a bad game versus Syracuse on Wednesday and were bounced early, but in the five games prior they’d been doing well with 74 or more points in three of those outings. Davidson hasn’t been scoring all that well lately, so if NC State can get off to a nice start I like them to bang out a cover.