Western Illinois vs Denver 1/7/23 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Denver Pioneers and the Western Illinois Leathernecks meet Saturday in college basketball action from Western Hall. The Pioneers just finished up a Thursday game versus St. Thomas MN. In that one Denver took a 10-point defeat. As for Western Illinois, they played Omaha in their Thursday matchup. The Leathernecks ended up losing by four points. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.

Denver went a solid 8-2 over their first 10 games this year, taking losses to only Sacramento State (twice). The Pioneers would go 2-4 over their next six games though, losing to UCLA, Omaha, Oregon State and Oral Roberts. 

Matched up against St. Thomas MN on Thursday, the Pioneers were drilled 47-25 in the first half. Denver bounced back with a 46-34 second-half run but still lost 81-71. Tyree Corbett led the team on a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds. 

Over on the Western Illinois side, they went 6-4 over their first 10 with losses to DePaul, UCF, UTRGV and Youngstown State. The Leathernecks went 2-2 over the next four with losses to South Dakota State and South Dakota. 

In the Omaha game on Thursday, the Leathernecks were down by 12 points heading into the second half. Western Illinois made a game of it from there but ended up losing 78-74. Vuk Stevanic topped the team on 21 points. 

PICK: I’m probably going to stick with Western Illinois. The Leathernecks have been a mixed bag lately; they’ve hit 64 or fewer points in two of the three games during this current losing streak. That said, Western Illinois can score very well when they’re so inclined; the Leathernecks had hit 79 or more points in each of the six games prior to this losing streak, winning all of them. As for Denver, they couldn’t keep up with a pretty good Tommies team in their last outing but this one should be more their speed. It’ll be an interesting matchup.