The Southern Illinois Salukis and the Drake Bulldogs meet Saturday in Missouri Valley Tournament college basketball action from Enterprise Center. Southern Illinois is currently 23-9 overall. The Salukis beat Missouri State in their Friday tournament game. As for Drake, they’re sitting at 25-7 overall and beat Murray State in their tournament matchup. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Southern Illinois Salukis
Southern Illinois had a 17-7 record over their first 24 games of the year. The Salukis went 5-2 over their final seven outings, beating Missouri State, UIC, Valparaiso, Northern Iowa and UIC with losses otherwise to Drake and Bradley.
In the Friday tournament game versus Missouri State, the Salukis were down 30-25 going into the second half. Southern Illinois came back with a 29-21 edge from there and won 54-51. Marcus Domask was the team’s top scorer with 17 points and four assist.
Drake Bulldogs
Over on the Drake side, they posted an 18-6 record over their first 24 games of the season. The Bulldogs finished off with wins over Valparaiso, Murray State, Southern Illinois, Northenr Iowa, Belmont and Illinois State before a loss to Bradley last weekend.
Matched up against Murray State in the tournament on Friday, Drake had a slim 33-31 edge at the break. The Bulldogs outscored the Racers 41-31 from there and won 74-62. Leading the way was Tucker DeVries with 27 points and five rebounds.
ANDREW’S FREE PICK
I’ll probably lean Drake in this one. I could probably go either way, though. The Bulldogs didn’t play particularly well in a tough road game versus Bradley last weekend, but otherwise they’ve been rolling right along lately. Drake’s offense has been working well; they’ve hit 70 or more points in every victory during this current 11-1 streak. These teams have met twice already with the home team winning each time. Southern Illinois took the January 4 matchup 53-49 and Drake struck back with an 82-59 win on February 11. Southern Illinois has been great defensively since then, holding opponents to 65 or fewer points in five straight. If Drake can get off to a good start however, I think they’ll be fine.