The UMass Minutemen and the Florida State Seminoles meet Sunday in college basketball action from Mohegan Sun Arena. Here’s a Florida State vs UMass prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Florida State vs UMass pick.
UMass Minutemen Betting Preview
UMass started out on a pretty rough run this year, but most of their losses were pretty close. The Minutemen beat New Hampshire 103-74, then fell to West Virginia 75-69, Louisiana Tech 76-66, and Hofstra 75-71 in the next three games.
On Saturday against Temple, the Minutemen were down 43-36 at the break. UMass kept the pace from there on a loss 87-80. Leading team scorer Jaylen Curry put up 17 points, while Daniel Hankins-Sanford doubled on 15 points and 10 boards.
Florida State Seminoles Betting Preview
Over on the Florida State side, they opened up the year on three straight wins. Those victories came over Northern Kentucky, Rice, and Tarleton State in succession. The Seminoles’ first loss came 87-74 versus Florida, but they’d bounced back with a 79-61 win over Hofstra on Tuesday.
Matched up against Temple on Friday, the Seminoles were up by six heading into the second half. Florida State took a 39-36 run from there for a 78-69 win. Jamir Watkins topped the team with 19 points and four rebounds, and Malique Ewin chipped in 15 points with nine boards. Florida State will meet Western Carolina and LSU after this game.
Why the Massachusetts Minutemen will win
- Massachusetts has won four of its last five games when playing with a rest disadvantage.
- Florida State has lost seven of its last nine day games against non-AP-ranked opponents at a neutral venue.
- Florida State has lost the first half in four of its last five day games against non-conference opponents.
Why the Florida State Seminoles will win
- Florida State has won each of its last seven games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
- Massachusetts has lost each of its last four games.
- Florida State has won the first half in each of its last nine games against the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Florida State vs UMass Prediction
I’ll lean toward Florida State. The Seminoles didn’t have a ton of issues with a middling Temple team in their Friday matchup, shooting 45.9 percent from the field with 39 rebounds and 12 assists. FSU did cough up 15 turnovers though, and went a measly 15-of-24 (62.5 percent) from the line. Still, given the fact that Florida State has hit 72 or more points in every game so far, they should score pretty well on Sunday.
As for UMass, they didn’t shoot particularly well Saturday, posting 39.3 percent from the field and 21.7 percent (5-of-23) from 3-point range. The Minutemen have posted 151 points over the last pair, but they’ve also allowed 164 combined points in that time as well. Florida State should be able to get their offense going without too much issue here.