Eastern Michigan vs Ball State 1/8/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Ball State Cardinals and the Eastern Michigan Eagles meet in college basketball MAC-tion from the EMU Convocation Center on Saturday afternoon.

The Ball State Cardinals will look to bounce back from a 66-65 loss to Kent State last time out. Luke Bumbalough leads the Cardinals in scoring and assists with 12.4 PPG and 3.3 APG while Payton Sparks has 10.5 PPG with a team-high 6.2 RPG to lead Ball State on the glass and Tyler Cochran has 11.1 PPG with 5.4 RPG to make up the trio of double-digit scorers for Ball State up to this point in the year. Miryne Thomas has 9.4 PPG with 5 RPG as well and Jalen Windham’s contributing 8.7 PPG as well on the year. As a team, Ball State is averaging 74..2 PPG on 43.9% shooting from the field, 36.6% from three and 68% from the foul line while allowing 77.2 PPG on 45.1% shooting from the field and 37.2% from three this season.

The Eastern Michigan Eagles will try to build on their 85-79 road win over Western Michigan last time out. Noah Farrakhan leads the Eagles in scoring with 17.9 PPG along with 4 RPG and 2.2 APG while Monty Scott has 14.6 PPG with a team-high 2.8 APG to lead the Eagles in assists and Bryce McBride has 12.6 PPG to make up the trio of double-digit scorers for Eastern Michigan so far this season. Colin Golson Jr. has 8.9 PPG with 5.3 RPG and Nate Scott has a team-high 5.5 RPG to lead the Eagles on the glass this season. As a team, Eastern Michigan is averaging 73.1 PPG on 43.1% shooting from the field, 32.1% from three and 69% from the foul line while allowing 77 PPG on 42.8% shooting from the field and 32.1% from three this season.

Ball State is 8-21 ATS in their last 29 road games and 7-19 ATS in their last 26 road games against a team with a winning home record while the over is 27-10 in their last 37 games overall. Eastern Michigan is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 home games and 3-8 ATS in their last 11 games following a win while the over is 20-8 in their last 28 games overall.

These aren’t two teams in the MAC I’d normally associate with being high-scoring, but we’ve seen Eastern Michigan light the nets on fire as of late and Ball State’s been an over machine going back to last season, hitting at a near 70% clip. I think if those trends hold true, we could have another high-scoring affair here. Give me the over.