East Tennessee State vs VMI 1/5/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds
VMI Keydets (9-5) vs. East Tennessee State Buccaneers (8-6)
January 5, 2022 7:00 pm EDT
The Line: East Tennessee State Buccaneers -3.5 ; Over/Under: 143
(Get latest betting odds)
The VMI Keydets and the East Tennessee State Buccaneers meet Wednesday in college basketball action from Freedom Hall Civic Center. VMI is 9-5 on the year and fresh off a win over Furman. As for East Tennessee State, they’re 8-6 so far. The Buccaneers lost to Chattanooga in their last game. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
VMI managed a 7-4 run over their first 11 games, taking losses to Presbyterian (twice), Marist and New Orleans. After another loss to Wake Forest, the Keydets took out Wofford and Furman in their last pair.
Matched up against Furman back on January 1, the Keydets were down 36-30 at halftime. VMI surged with 46 points from there in a 76-67 win. Jake Stephens led the team on 23 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Over on the Bucs’ side, they came out of the gate with a decent 7-3 stretch. ETSU lost to App State, Tennessee and UAB along the way. It’s been a 1-3 run since then with losses to NC A&T, UNC Asheville and Chattanooga.
In the Chattanooga matchup, the Buccaneers put up just 22 points in the second half on the way to an 82-52 blowout loss. Ty Brewer topped the squad on 15 points, and Jaden Seymour added 11 points with four boards.
The Bucs are 9-4 ATS in their last 13 Wednesday games and the under is 6-2 in their last eight at home. The under is 6-1 in ETSU’s last seven Wednesday games.
Meanwhile, VMI is 4-0 ATS in their last four road games and 6-1-1 ATS in their last eight Wednesday games. The Keydets are 6-0 ATS in the last six overall.
PICK: I’m going to stick with VMI. The Keydets have been putting up some pretty good offensive numbers lately. VMI has hit 70 or more points in eight of their last nine outings; overall there haven’t been too many issues when it comes to the scoreboard this year.
As for East Tennessee State, they’ve been a mixed bag offensively depending on the matchup. If the Buccaneers can get off to a good start I can see them hanging around but I don’t think they’ve got the legs to cover.
