Northern Illinois vs Ball State 1/27/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds
Ball State Cardinals (8-10) vs. Northern Illinois Huskies (5-11)
January 27, 2022 8:00 pm EDT
The Line: Northern Illinois Huskies +4 ; Over/Under: 137
(Get latest betting odds)
The Ball State Cardinals and the Northern Illinois Huskies meet Thursday in college basketball action from NIU Convocation Center. Ball State is sitting at 8-10 on the year. The Cardinals beat Miami-OH in their last game. As for NIU, they’re currently 5-11 and coming off a loss to Ohio. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Ball State has been a pretty choppy team so far this year. The Cardinals have only won consecutive games twice, and they’re 1-3 in their last quartet. After losses to Akron, Buffalo and Toledo, Ball State won their last outing versus Miami-OH.
In the matchup versus Miami-OH, the Cardinals posted a 31-19 run in the first half and a 50-45 advantage from there for a nice 81-64 victory. Leading the scoring was Miryne Thomas with 26 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Over on the NIU side, they hit a 3-8 start to the year with wins over only Washington, Eastern Illinois and Chicago State. After wins over Kent State and Eastern Michigan, the Huskies lost to Bowling Green, Miami-OH and Ohio.
Matched up against the Bobcats on Tuesday, the Huskies were blown out 41-22 in the first half. NIU came back with a 40-33 run in the second but it wasn’t enough in a 74-62 loss. Keshawn Williams topped the team on 12 points and one rebound.
NIU is 3-9-1 ATS in their last 13 at home and 7-3 ATS in the last 10 Thursday games. NIU is 4-1 ATS in their last five games overall.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals are 6-2 ATS in their last eight overall and 9-23 ATS in their last 32 road games. The under is 5-1 in Ball State’s last six overall.
PICK: I’m going to stay with Ball State here, but probably not going near it. There’s not a ton of intrigue here, but it should be a competitive game. Ball State hasn’t been scoring too badly lately; they’ve hit 68 or more points in five straight games—but they’ve also given up 72 or more points in four of those.
NIU can score reasonably well this year if the matchup is right, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see this one finish with a high total. Cover-wise I think Ball State has the inside track though.
