Southern Illinois vs Drake 1/17/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Drake Bulldogs and the Southern Illinois Salukis meet Monday in college basketball action from SIU Arena. Drake is 13-5 so far this year. The Bulldogs are coming off a win over Illinois State. As for Southern Illinois, they’re sitting at 9-7 on the season and fell to Northern Iowa over the weekend. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Drake posted a strong 10-4 run in their first 14 games with losses to only Belmont, Alabama, North Texas and Clemson. After another loss to Missouri State, the Bulldogs managed wins over Evansville and Illinois State. 

In the Illinois State game back on January 12, the Bulldogs posted 44 points in the first half and 42 more from there in an 86-75 win. Leading the way on offense were Roman Penn and Tucker DeVries, each with 16 points and a combined eight assists. 

Over on the Southern Illinois side, they went 7-4 over their first 11 outings this year. The losses were to Little Rock, Northeastern, Creighton and Tulsa. It’s been a 2-3 stretch since then with losses to San Francisco, Missouri State and Northern Iowa. 

Matched up against Northern Iowa on Saturday, the Salukis were down 36-26 at halftime. Southern Illinois fought back on a 42-33 run from there but ended up losing 69-68 in a tough one. Marcus Domask topped the team on 23 points with five rebounds. 

The Salukis are 7-2 ATS in their last nine after a straight-up loss and the under is 18-7 in their last 25 overall. The under is 10-3 in Southern Illinois’ last 13 overall. 

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs are 0-7 ATS in their last seven road games and 2-7 ATS in their last nine after a straight-up win. Drake is 4-0 ATS in their last four Monday games. 

PICK: I’m going to stick with Drake. The Bulldogs had a bit of an offensive lull going there for a couple of games early this month. They hit a combined 115 points in the Missouri State and Evansville games, but came back to score 86 on Illinois State their last time out. Drake should have some scoring opportunities here, and if they get off to a good start I don’t see the team having issues covering/winning. Southern Illinois will probably hang around for a while here but I don’t think they have the legs to keep up.