Tip off: 9:45 PM EST
Spread: IND -6
Total: 155
M/L: IND -275, NMS +235
Bet at Bookmaker, the source of these college basketball betting odds.
New Mexico State
The Aggies finished with an impressive 26-9 record, and they won the WAC, going 10-4 in conference play and blowing out Louisana Tech in the WAC Championship game, winning by 25.
They’ve won 9 of their last 10 games, but Indiana will represent the first challenge they have faced all season, as they played no ranked opponents all year.
Their numbers are impressive, but they must be taken with a grain of salt, given the Aggies’ competition. They post 78 points per game, and are led by Wendell McKines’ 18.8 per game. McKines, a 6’6″ senior forward, is undersized for his position, but it doesn’t show, as McKines leads the Aggies in rebounding with 10.8 boards per game. He’s posted double doubles in four of the last 5 games, and is averaging 14.6 rebounds per game over that stretch.
Aggies Betting Trends:
New Mexico State is 15-12 ATS in their last 27 games and they are 2-3 ATS as an underdog. They are 4-1 ATS in neutral court games and have gone 182-195 ATS since 1997.
Indiana
Indiana closed out the season strong, before losing to #12 ranked Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game, giving up 13 threes to the Badgers on 26 attempts. They’re going to have to do a much better job of closing out shooters to advance very far in this tournament.
Three Hoosiers scored 17 points in the losing effort — Jordan Hulls, Christian Watford, and Cody Zeller. Zeller, a 6’11” freshman, leads the team in scoring with 15.5 points per game, while also snagging a team high 6.4 boards per contest. He shot 5 of 9 from the floor against the Badgers, but somehow managed just one rebound after grabbing 10 the game before against Penn State. He has scored in double figures in the last four Hoosiers games, averaging 16.8 points per game over that span.
Zeller’s efforts are met by three other Hoosiers in double figure scoring, with Watford (12.0 per game), Hulls (11.5) and Victor Oladipo (10.9) rounding out the attack.
No Hoosiers player sees more than 30 minutes a game, though the Hoosiers stick to a pretty tight six man rotation, with Matt Roth, Derek Elston, and Tom Prichard seeing only fringe minutes.
Hoosiers Betting Trends:
Indiana is 17-9 ATS in their last 26 games and 11-6 ATS as a favorite. They are 2-1 ATS when the total is set between 150 and 159.5 and they are 7-0 ATS in non-conference games. The Hoosiers are 11-8 ATS vs. teams with winning records and are 219-225 ATS since 1997.
