James Madison vs Texas State 1/5/23 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Texas State Bobcats and the James Madison Dukes meet in college basketball action from the Atlantic Union Bank Center on Thursday night.

The Texas State Bobcats will look to rebound from a 55-52 loss to Troy last time out. Mason Harrell leads the Bobcats in scoring with 17.9 PPG as the lone double-digit scorer for Texas State so far this season. Drue Drinnon has a team-high 2.4 APG and Brandon Davis has a team-high 3.4 RPG as well on the year. As a team, Texas State is averaging 65.7 PPG on 42.6% shooting from the field, 28% from three and 70.1% from the foul line this season.

The James Madison Dukes will look to build on their 72-66 win over Marshall in their last game. Vado Morse leads JMU in scoring with 13.2 PPG with a team-high 2.6 APG while Takai Molson has 11.5 PPG with 4.4 RPG this season. Terrence Edwards has 11.3 PPG with 4.2 RPG and 2.2 APG to cap off the scoring in double figures for JMU so far this season. As a team, James Madison is averaging 89.7 PPG on 50% shooting from the field, 37.9% from three and 69.5% from the foul line this season.

Texas State is 1-6 ATS in their last 7 games overall and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games against a team with a winning percentage above .600. James Madison is 13-4 ATS in their last 17 games against a team with a losing record and 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games overall while the over is 5-0 in their last 5 home games.

I get the case to be made for an underdog like Texas State, but James Madison has been so good offensively this season and I’m just not sure that I trust Texas State to be able to slow down the Dukes enough that they can sneak in the backdoor here. I think the Dukes should be in control from start to finish, so give me James Madison in this one.