The Iona Gaels and the SMU Mustangs meet Thursday in college basketball action from Stan Sheriff Center. Iona is 7-3 overall this year. The Gaels lost to New Mexico in their last outing. As for SMU, they’re sitting at 3-7 and coming off a loss to TCU. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Iona managed to go 3-2 over their first five games with wins over Penn, Vermont and Niagara. In the five games since it’s been a 4-1 run with wins versus Canisius, Saint Louis, St. Bonaventure and Princeton.
Matched up against New Mexico on Sunday, the Gaels’ win streak came to an end. Iona was outscored 44-33 in the first half and limped to an 82-74 defeat. Tops in scoring was Nelly Junior Joseph with 21 points and six rebounds.
Over on the SMU side, they were 2-3 over their first five games, taking wins over Texas A&M-Commerce and Evansville. The Mustangs are 1-4 since then with losses to Texas A&M, Jackson State, Arizona State and TCU.
In the TCU game on Saturday, the Mustangs were outscored 37-31 in the first half. SMU hit a 46-44 deficit in the second and finished with an 83-75 loss. Zach Nutall led the team on 20 points and Efe Odigie doubled on 13 points and 11 boards.
PICK: I’m going to take a stab on SMU. Sure, the Mustangs’ 1-4 run over their last five games looks pretty rough. That said, SMU has faced off against some top-level national teams in that stretch—namely TCU and Arizona State. In comparable matchups the Mustangs have performed much better this year. As for Iona, they’ve scored 70 or more points in every game this year and had been playing very well before the New Mexico loss. I think SMU can sneak into a cover if they start hot, though.