UMass vs Duquesne 1/8/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds
Duquesne Dukes (5-7) vs. UMass Minutemen (7-6)
January 8, 2022 12:00 pm EDT
The Line: UMass Minutemen -3.5 ; Over/Under: 149
(Get latest betting odds)
The Duquesne Dukes and the UMass Minutemen meet Saturday in college basketball action from Mullins Center. Duquesne is 5-7 this year. The Dukes took out UC Irvine in their last game. As for UMass, they’re 7-6 and fresh off a loss to Richmond. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Duquesne went just 3-7 over their first 10 games, notching wins over Rider, Bradley and American along the way. Since then the Dukes have won consecutive games over New Hampshire and UC Irvine to move to 5-7.
In the UC Irvine game way back on December 19, Duquesne scored 38 points in each half on the way to a nice 76-54 win. Leading scorer Leon Ayers put up 24 points with six boards, and Kevin Easley doubled on 12 points and 10 boards.
Over on the UMass side, their first nine games featured six wins versus UMBC, Penn State, UNC Greensboro, UMass Lowell, Rutgers and Harvard. It’s been a 1-3 run since then with losses to Northeastern, North Texas and Richmond.
Matched up against Richmond on Tuesday, the Minutemen were down 50-31 at the break. Things got better from there but UMass still lost 80-72. Rich Kelly led the team on 20 points, and CJ Kelly added 16 points of his own.
UMass is 5-1 ATS in their last six Saturday games and 5-2 ATS in the last seven overall. The Minutemen are 25-7-1 ATS in their last 33 at home.
Meanwhile, the Dukes are 6-2 ATS in their last eight Saturday games and the under is 7-3 in their last 10 Saturday games. The over is 6-2 in Duquesne’s last eight road games.
PICK: I’m going to take a stab on UMass. This one’s a little tricky however, since the Dukes haven’t been on the court in a while. That said, the Minutemen have been scoring pretty well over the course of the season, hitting 71 or more points in 12 of 13 games. UMass does get into trouble against higher-scoring teams, however.
As for Duquesne, they’ve posted some pretty good totals this year as well so I don’t think they’ll have too much trouble keeping the pace most of the way. Ultimately I think the Minutemen sound better cover-wise, though.
