The Sacred Heart Pioneers and Hartford Hawks meet Tuesday in college basketball action at the Chase Arena. The Sacred Heart Pioneers are coming off a 10-win season. The Hartford Hawks are coming off a 12-win season.
The Sacred Heart Pioneers have won a combined 19 games the last 2 years. Nico Galette returns after averaging 12.4 points and 7.9 rebounds, while Bryce Johnson averaged 6.8 points and 1.5 assists. Tanner Thomas played in 174 minutes last season, and Joey Reilly averaged 1.7 assists. The Sacred Heart Pioneers said goodbye to their top-2 scorers from last season and a handful of role players. Sacred Heart will now be led by Galette, who broke out last season and started 29 games. Depth could be an issue for the Sacred Heart Pioneers.
The Hartford Hawks enter the 13th season under coach John Gallagher. Briggs McClain returns after averaging 5.3 points and 2.1 rebounds, while Jared Kimbrough averaged 4.9 points and 0.7 assists. Kurtis Henderson played in 57 minutes last season and Michael Dunne averaged 1 rebound. The Hartford Hawks say goodbye to their top-7 scorers from last season, including one of the top players in the conference in Austin Williams. To say Hartford is a new team from a year ago is an understatement. I don’t think anybody knows what to expect from Hartford this season with so much roster turnover.
The Pioneers are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall. The Hawks are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 home games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 Tuesday games. The over is 12-3-1 in Pioneers last 16 overall. The over is 5-2 in Hawks last 7 home games.
The Sacred Heart Pioneers are probably the easier team to trust, given that they have slightly more returning production. The Hartford Hawks are a brand-new team with so many guys who aren’t on this roster. However, the talent gap between these teams is almost nothing, and oddsmakers still respect Hartford enough to nearly make this a pick em. I’ll lean Hartford here because of the home court.