Northern Iowa vs Jackson State 12/14/21 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Jackson State Tigers and the Northern Iowa Panthers meet in college basketball action from the McLeod Center on Tuesday night.

The Jackson State Tigers will look to bounce back from a 47-37 loss at the hands of Iowa State in their last game. Gabe Watson leads the Tigers in scoring with 15.3 PPG despite appearing in just four games this season while Jayveous McKinnie has 11.2 PPG and a team-high 9.9 RPG to lead the Tigers on the glass and make up the other half of the duo of double-digit scorers for Jackson State so far this season. Chance Moore has 8.1 PPG and Ken Evans has 6 PPG and a team-high 3 APG this season. As a team, Jackson State is averaging 56.3 PPG on 37.5% shooting from the field, 33.5% from three and 65.1% from the foul line while allowing 69.2 PPG on 45.2% shooting from the field and 32.5% from three this season.

The Northern Iowa Panthers will look to rebound from a 60-52 loss at the hands of the Richmond Spiders last time out. AJ Green leads the Panthers in scoring with 16.4 PPG while Noah Carter has 10.7 PPG as the only other double-digit scorer for UNI so far this season. Nate Heise, Austin Phyfe and Trae Berhow each have 8+ PPG with Heise logging 8.9 PPG while Phyfe has 4 RPG and a team-high 2.8 APG and Berhow leads the Panthers on the glass with 4.9 RPG this season. As a team, Northern Iowa is averaging 71.6 PPG on 44.3% shooting from the field, 36% from three and 68.8% from the foul line while allowing 70.7 PPG on 44.1% shooting from the field and 33.3% from three this season.

Jackson State is 10-4-1 ATS in their last 15 road games and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games against a team with a losing record while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall. Northern Iowa is 7-22-1 ATS in their last 30 games overall and 3-12-1 ATS in their last 16 home games while the under is 9-1 in their last 10 games following a loss.

I get why Northern Iowa’s favored at home, but this line still feels a bit extreme. The Panthers haven’t been very good at covering numbers so far this season and it’s been Murphy’s Law for the Panthers. When the offense shows up, the defense fails to and when the defense performs well, the offense doesn’t hold up. The lack of offense from the Tigers is a bit scary at times, but I think Jackson State’s capable of keeping this one somewhat close, so give me the Tigers and the points in this one.