Northern Arizona vs Idaho 1/17/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Idaho Vandals and the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks meet in college basketball action from the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome on Monday night.

The Idaho Vandals will look to bounce back from an 81-74 loss to Idaho State in their last game. Mikey Dixon leads the Vandals in scoring with 17.9 PPG while Trevante Anderson has 11.7 PPG with 4.8 RPG and a team-high 4.3 APG to lead the Vandals in assists this season. Rashad Smith has 10.2 PPG with a team-high 5.4 RPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for Idaho as the team’s top rebounder this season. As a team, Idaho is averaging 74.4 PPG on 42.5% shooting from the field, 38.3% from three and 73.9% from the foul line while allowing 82 PPG on 47.7% shooting from the field and 34.8% from three this season.

The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks will try to add to a 101-54 win over subdivision Embry Riddle last time out. Jalen Cone leads the Lumberjacks in scoring with 18 PPG along with 3.3 APG while Nik Mains has 11.9 PPG with 5 RPG as the only other double-digit scorer for Northern Arizona so far this season. Keith Haymon has 9.5 PPG while Carson Towt has 8.7 PPG with team-highs of 9.6 RPG and 4 APG to lead the Lumberjacks in rebounds and assists as well this season. As a team, Northern Arizona is averaging 69.4 PPG on 41.7% shooting from the field, 37.4% from three and 67.7% from the foul line while allowing 72.6 PPG on 44.8% shooting from the field and 34.1% from three this season.

Idaho is 6-1 ATS in their last 7 road games and 1-6 ATS in their last 7 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 3-0-1 in their last 4 games overall. Northern Arizona is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400 and 1-9 ATS in their last 10 home games against a team with a losing road record while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games against a team with a losing record.

I get why you’d look at Idaho and the points here as the Vandals, despite a poor record, have been solid ATS on the road this season. The thing is, a lot of those covers came with the Vandals getting a boatload of points and almost sneaking in the backdoor for a cover. Northern Arizona isn’t great, but they can take advantage of this terrible Idaho defense to win this game by 7 or 8 points and cover the number in the process.