Furman vs The Citadel 1/4/23 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Citadel Bulldogs and the Furman Paladins meet in college basketball action from the Timmons Arena on Wednesday.

The Citadel Bulldogs will look to rebound from a 75-63 loss to Samford in their last game. Austin Ash leads the Citadel in scoring with 16.4 PPG along with 4.7 RPG while Stephen Clark has 15.4 PPG and 6.6 RPG to lead the Bulldogs on the glass as the only other double-digit scorer for the Citadel up to this point in the season. Madison Durr also has a team-high 2.9 APG to lead the Citadel in assists so far this year. As a team, the Citadel is averaging 70.7 PPG on 42.9% shooting from the field, 32.7% from three and 78.2% from the foul line this season.

The Furman Paladins will hope to rebound from a 79-67 loss to Western Carolina last time out. Mike Bothwell leads the Paladins in scoring and assists with 20.2 PPG and 4.5 APG with 3.8 RPG as well while Jalen Slawson has 15 PPG and a team-high 6.9 RPG to lead the Paladins on the glass while also adding 3.4 APG to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for Furman up to this point in the year. As a team, Furman is averaging 82.6 PPG on 50% shooting from the field, 34.3% from behind the arc and 74.4% from the foul line this season.

The Citadel is 9-2-1 ATS in their last 12 road games and 1-4-1 ATS in their last 6 games overall while the under is 5-2 in their last 7 games against a team with a winning record. Furman is 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games overall and 42-17 ATS in their last 59 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 10-4 in their last 14 games against a team with a losing record.

I get the case to be made for the Citadel as it is a conference matchup, but the problem for me is that the Citadel just isn’t all that good defensive and I don’t expect that to change here against a Wofford team that is still a better team than their record would indicate in my opinion. Give me the Paladins in this one.