Indiana State vs Wisconsin-Green Bay 11/7/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

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

The Green Bay Phoenix will try to bounce back from a disastrous 2021-22 season, finishing at 5-25 overall, including a 4-16 mark in Horizon League conference play. As the 11-seed in the Horizon League tournament, the Phoenix fell to Detroit Mercy in the first round, ending their season. The Phoenix have a tall task ahead, replacing three double-digit scorers from last year’s team, including Donovan Ivory (11.9 PPG, 4.2 RPG), Emmanuel Ansong (11 PPG, 5 RPG) and Kamari McGee (11.6 PPG) and it will be a tall task with a lot of new faces, as the top returning players for Green Bay are Cade Mayer (9.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG, Horizon All-Freshman team) and Nate Jenkins (8.4 PPG).

The Indiana State Sycamores will look to bounce back from a subpar 2021-22 season, finishing the year at 11-20 overall, including a 4-14 mark in MVC conference play. As the 9-seed in the MVC tournament, the Sycamores had a brief stay in the conference tournament, losing to Illinois State in the opening round, ending their season. The plus for the Sycamores is that the bulk of their top talent is back, led by Cooper Neese (15 PPG, 4.3 RPG, all-MVC third team) and Cameron Henry (14.3 PPG, 5.5 RPG, MVC Newcomer of the year). The Sycamores also get some solid help from the D-II ranks, bringing in stat-sheet stuffing guard Trenton Gibson (17.2 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 5.3 APG) from Tusculum while Cade McKnight comes in as a grad transfer from Truman State as a 6’9” forward who logged 19.2 PPG and 6.4 RPG last season. The Sycamores look to be one of the more improved teams in the MVC on paper, only time will tell if that comes to fruition on the floor.

Green Bay is 2-8 ATS in their last 10 games overall and 17-7-1 ATS in their last 25 Monday games while the under is 13-6 in their last 19 road games. Indiana State is 3-12-1 ATS in their last 16 games overall and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 home games while the under is 15-3 in their last 18 Monday games.

I get the case to be made for an underdog, especially in a season opener. However, the Phoenix were one of the worst teams in the country last year and losing a bunch of guys from that roster without reloading isn’t going to help. Indiana State at least made some moves to help improve the state of the team going forward and I just don’t think the Phoenix can hang here. Give me the Sycamores here.