The SMU Mustangs and the Utah State Aggies meet Friday in college basketball action from Stan Sheriff Center. SMU enters this game at 4-7 overall. The Mustangs beat Iona in their Thursday matchup. As for Utah State, they’re 10-1 on the season and coming off a win over Seattle. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sport Chat Place.
SMU has wins this year over Texas A&M-Commerce, Evansville, Lamar and Iona. The losses otherwise have been versus Dayton, New Mexico, Louisiana, Texas A&M, Jackson State, Arizona State and TCU.
In the Iona game on Thursday, SMU was down 41-35 by halftime. The Mustangs hit a 50-40 run in the second half for the dramatic comeback victory 85-81. Zach Nutall led the team on 24 points with four rebounds and four assists.
Over on the Utah State side, they have just one loss to Weber State this year. The wins have come versus Utah Valley, Bradley, Santa Clara, San Diego, Oral Roberts, Utah Tech, San Francisco, LMU, Westminster UT and Seattle.
In the Thursday game versus Seattle, Utah State took a 36-24 lead into the locker room. In the second half the Aggies posted another 48 points during an 84-56 victory. Steven Ashworth put up 17 points with four rebounds in the win.
PICK: I may take a stab on SMU here. Probably not touching it, though. The Mustangs are coming off a nice victory over a decent Iona team. SMU ended up shooting a nice 60 percent from the field with a 29-21 rebounding advantage. The 21 turnovers didn’t help, though. This year the Mustangs have been a mixed bag, but they’ve also had the misfortune of playing some very good squads. They’ll play another good team Friday in Utah State. The Aggies have scored very well this year themselves, but if SMU has another good offensive outing on Friday I think they’ve got a reasonable shot cover-wise.