Tulsa vs Southern Illinois 12/11/21 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Southern Illinois Salukis and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane meet Saturday in college basketball action from Donald Reynolds Center. Southern Illinois is 5-3 this year and coming off a win over Southern Miss. As for the Hurricane, they’re 4-5 so far. Tulsa lost to LMU in their last outing. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place. 

Southern Illinois got off to a sketchy 2-3 start this year. The Salukis lost to Little Rock, Northeastern and Creighton in that stretch. Since then Southern Illinois has won three straight over Alcorn State, Evansville and Southern Miss. 

In the Southern Miss game, the Salukis posted a 32-23 advantage in the first half and a 34-18 run from there in a 66-41 victory. Marcus Domask was the top scorer for Southern Illinois with 14 points, four rebounds and four assists. 

Over on the Tulsa side, they posted a 4-2 run over their first half-dozen games, winning versus Northwestern State, Oregon State, Rhode Island and Little Rock. The Hurricane have lost to Oral Roberts, Boise State and LMU in the trio of games since. 

Tulsa got off to a slow 25-point first half against LMU and couldn’t catch back up despite a 35-24 second-half edge in a 60-55 defeat. Sam Griffin was the Hurricanes’ only double-digit scorer with 16 points, and Jeriah Horne posted 11 rebounds with eight points. 

Tulsa is 9-3 ATS in their last 12 Saturday games and 2-6 ATS in their last eight at home. The Hurricane are 11-5 ATS in their last 16 after an ATS loss. 

Meanwhile, the Salukis are 2-5-1 ATS in the last eight Saturday games and 3-7-1 ATS in their last 11 after a straight-up win. The under is 6-2 in Southern Illinois’ last eight road games. 

PICK: I’m going to try Southern Illinois here. The Salukis played a pretty decent game against Southern Miss in their last outing, with 41.9 percent from the field, 15 team assists and a 42-28 rebounding advantage. The 3-point shooting was off (9-of-32 for 28.1 percent) but everything else looked pretty good for Southern Illinois. 

As for Tulsa, they got off to a bad first-half start against LMU and were ultimately out-rebounded 40-25 in the loss. The Hurricanes have been at 63 points or below in four of their last five outings. That means Tulsa is going to have to hit the gas on offense here if they want to keep up.