The Southern Illinois Salukis and the Little Rock Trojans meet Tuesday in college basketball action from Jack Stephens Center. Southern Illinois managed to go 12-14 overall last season, which left the team far down the MVC rankings. As for the Trojans, they were worse at 11-15. Little Rock finished one spot out of the basement in the Sun Belt’s West Division. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Southern Illinois is coming off a sketchy campaign last year, going 12-14 overall and 5-13 in the Missouri Valley Conference. That mark was below average, as the Salukis landed just one spot out of the basement in the MVC standings ahead of only Illinois State (4-14).
Southern Illinois showed some early promise in non-conference play last year, and burst out of the gate with a 7-0 record. The Salukis wouldn’t win consecutive games for the rest of the regular season. After a win over Bradley in the MVC Tournament, Southern Illinois lost 78-49 to Loyola in the Quarterfinals.
Over on the Little Rock side, they weren’t able to do much last year either with a 11-15 overall record and a 7-11 run in Sun Belt play. The Trojans were ahead of only Troy at 4-12 and Louisiana-Monroe at 5-13 in the conference standings.
The Trojans started out conference play well last year with three wins in four games, but a seven-game losing streak in February knocked them below .500 for good. Little Rock’s season ended with a 67-60 loss to Appalachian State in the Sun Belt Tournament.
The Salukis are 4-1 ATS in their last five overall and the under is 5-1 in their last six Tuesday games. The under is 8-2 in Southern Illinois’ last 10 overall.
Meanwhile, the Trojans are 4-9 ATS in their last 13 Tuesday games and 2-5 ATS in their last seven at home. Little Rock is also 6-19-1 ATS in their last 26 games overall.
PICK: I’m going with Southern Illinois. The Missouri Valley Conference is loaded with four or five really solid teams this season, and we should see a dogfight at the top of the standings. The Salukis have the talent and depth to potentially make a run at some of those teams. 2020 Freshman of the Year Marcus Domask is back, and with SIU’s deep backcourt the team should have some nice balance on offense. I think Southern Illinois will turn a lot of heads this season if all goes well.