The Hofstra Pride and the Arkansas Razorbacks meet Saturday in college basketball action from Verizon Arena. Hofstra is 6-5 so far and fresh off a blowout win over John Jay. As for Arkansas, they’re sitting at 9-1 this year. The Razorbacks lost to Oklahoma in their last appearance. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Hofstra went 2-4 in their first six games, losing to Houston, Iona, Maryland and Richmond along the way. Since then the Pride have gone 4-1 with wins over Detroit, Princeton, Bucknell and John Jay mixed with a loss to Stony Brook.
Back on Sunday against John Jay, the Pride scored 49 points in the first half and 53 more from there in a 102-51 blowout victory. Hofstra’s Darlinstone Dubar put up 24 points to lead the team, and Jalen Ray added 22 points with a pair of rebounds.
Over on the Arkansas side, they beat Mercer, Gardner-Webb, Northern Iowa, Kansas State, Cincinnati, Penn, Central Arkansas, Little Rock and Charlotte to start the year. Last time out was the Razorbacks’ first loss; they fell to Oklahoma in a blowout.
Matched up against Oklahoma last weekend, Arkansas had a modest 39-33 deficit at the break. The Razorbacks scored 33 points from there in an eventual 88-66 loss. Davonte Davis was the top team scorer on 26 points with five rebounds.
The Razorbacks are 7-2 ATS in their last nine after a straight-up loss and 0-6 ATS in their last six Saturday games. Arkansas is 7-2 ATS in the last nine after an ATS loss.
Meanwhile, the Pride are 15-5 ATS in their last 20 Saturday games and 6-1 ATS in their last seven neutral-site games. The over is 5-1 in Hofstra’s last six Saturday games.
PICK: I’m going to stick with Arkansas in this one. The Razorbacks need a good bounce-back game here, though. Arkansas shot a tepid 34.4 percent against Oklahoma, notching a 36-29 rebounding deficit and only 10 team assists. Prior to that the Razorbacks had 72 or more points in nine straight games.
As for Hofstra, they’ve scored pretty well themselves over the last six games or so. That said, if Arkansas really digs in and takes out their frustrations here, I don’t think the Pride will be able to keep up.