Wisconsin-Green Bay vs Indiana State College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 11/9/2021

The Indiana State Sycamores and the Green Bay Phoenix meet in college basketball action from the Resch Center on Tuesday night.

The Indiana State Sycamores come into this season looking to build off of a 15-10 mark in 2020-21, including an 11-7 mark in MVC conference play, which saw the Sycamores finish the season with the #4 seed in the Missouri Valley conference tournament, taking down Evansville in the quarters before falling to Loyola-Chicago in the tournament semi-finals. The Sycamores this season will be led by Josh Schertz, making his first crack at a D-I job after spending the last 13 years with D-II Lincoln Memorial. Schertz inherits a solid roster including a couple of key returning starters in Tyreke Key and Cooper Neese, with Key leading the Sycamores with 17.2 PPG along with 5.3 RPG last season. Neese also chipped in 9.5 PPG. The difference is expected to be made up by Dearon Tucker and Xavier Bledson, two of three transfers that Schertz brings with him from Lincoln Memorial that averaged double digits in scoring last season. Only time will tell if Schertz’s success translates to the D-I level with Indiana State.

The Green Bay Phoenix will bounce back from a disappointing 2020-21 season under Will Ryan, finishing the year at 8-17 including an 0-9 start and 0-5 in conference play before finishing a commendable 8-8 down the stretch. Green Bay loses three of their best players from last year’s team in Josh Jefferson, Amari Davis and PJ Pipes, but bring back Emmanuel Ansong who had 10.4 PPG and 5.3 RPG for the Phoenix last season. The Phoenix also bring back fringe starter Japannah Kellogg, while Tutu Majok will likely see the bulk of the minutes in Green Bay’s frontcourt. The Phoenix also brought in transfers like Mitch Listau from Belmont as well as Blayton Williams and Randy Tucker, a pair of JUCO transfers. It’s likely going to be a transition and rebuild year for the Phoenix this season.

Indiana State is 8-2-1 ATS in their last 11 games overall and 5-2-1 ATS in their last 8 road games while the under is 20-6 in their last 26 games as a favorite. Green Bay is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games as a home underdog and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 Tuesday games while the over is 7-3 in their last 10 games overall.

It’s never ideal to be laying points on the road in college basketball on opening night, with so much uncertainty and we have yet to see how these teams look on the floor. However, the Sycamores have some solid pieces returning as well as some nice pieces as incoming transfers. Green Bay is basically starting from scratch and it wasn’t a great team even with their top players when they were there. I think Indiana State is more than capable of winning this one by a couple of buckets, so give me the Sycamores here.