Furman vs VMI 12/29/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The VMI KEydets and the Furman Paladins meet in college basketball action from the Timmons Arena on Thursday night.

The VMI Keydets will look to rebound from an 80-77 OT loss to Fordham last time out. Sean Conway leads the Keydets in scoring and rebounding with 15.8 PPG and 6.1 RPG while Asher Woods has 15.1 PPG with 4.5 RPG this season. Tony Felder has 11.8 PPG with a team-high 3.5 APG to lead the Keydets in the assist department while Tyler Houser has 10 PPG to cap off the scoring in double figures for VMI this season. As a team, VMI is averaging 76.8 PPG on 45.1% shooting from the field, 39.6% from three and 75.8% from the foul line this season.

The Furman Paladins will look to build on a 106-79 win over subdivision Anderson last time out. Mike Bothwell leads the Paladins in scoring and assists with 20.2 PPG and 4.5 APG with 3.8 RPG as well while Jalen Slawson has 15 PPG and a team-high 6.9 RPG to lead the Paladins on the glass while also adding 3.4 APG to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for Furman up to this point in the year. As a team, Furman is averaging 82.6 PPG on 50% shooting from the field, 34.3% from behind the arc and 74.4% from the foul line this season.

VMI is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 Thursday games while the over is 5-1 in their last 6 games following an ATS win. Furman is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games overall and 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games following a win while the over is 13-3 in their last 16 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400.

I get the case to be made for Furman here, as the Paladins are the better team by a fair margin. However, this is a lot of points to be giving up when four of the last five meetings have been decided by single digits. It’s not a game I’m rushing to bet, but this is the kind of edge you find once conference play starts. I’ll side with the Keydets and the points here.