Florida Gulf Coast vs Detroit 3/16/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Detroit Mercy Titans and the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles meet in The Basketball Classic First Round action from the Alico Arena on Wednesday night.

The Detroit Mercy Titans come into the basketball classic on behalf of the Horizon League, finishing the year at 14-15 on the year and picking up a 10-7 mark in conference play to finish as the #6 seed. As the 6 seed, Detroit Mercy took out Green Bay before falling to Northern Kentucky. Antoine Davis leads the Titans in scoring and assists with 23.9 PPG and 4.4 APG along with 3.6 RPG while Madut Akec has 12.5 PPG with a team-high 7 RPG to lead the Titans on the glass as the only other double-digit scorer for Detroit so far this season. As a team, Detroit is averaging 70.6 PPG on 43.6% shooting from the field, 37.5% from three and 77.4% from the foul line while allowing 69.7 PPG on 46.2% shooting from the floor and 35% from three this season.

The Florida Gulf Coast Eagles come into the tournament repping the ASUN, finishing the year at 21-11 including 10-6 in conference play to finish as the #3 seed in the East division. Florida Gulf Coast upended North Alabama in the first round before falling to eventual tournament champion Bellarmine in the quarterfinals. Tavian Dunn-Martin leads the Eagles in scoring and assists with 21.1 PPG and 6.1 APG while Cyrus Largie has 10.7 PPG with 4.8 RPG and Kevin Samuel has 11.7 PPG with a team-high 9.8 RPG to lead the Eagles on the glass and to round out the trio of double-digit scorers for Florida Gulf Coast so far this season. As a team, Florida Gulf Coast is averaging 77.6 PPG on 44.7% shooting from the field, 34.9% from three and 68% from the foul line while allowing 73 PPG on 43.2% shooting from the field and 32.8% from three this season.

Detroit Mercy is 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games following an ATS loss and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games as a road underdog while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall. Florida Gulf Coast is 3-1-1 ATS in their last 5 home games and 5-14-1 ATS in their last 20 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall.

I get why you could make a case for Detroit here, but the reality has been all year for the Titans that once you take Detroit Mercy and their show on the road, the Titans can look like a different team, and not in a good way. I just think this is a spot where home court pays dividends for Florida Gulf Coast, so give me the Eagles and lay the bucket here.