Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Thursday Night Big Sky Predictions

With everyone but Southern Utah playing on Thursday night, it seemed like a good times to make some predictions on games!

SACRAMENTO STATE 74, @ NORTHERN ARIZONA 68
NAU is playing at home, but I am not sure that they will have a good answer for the Hornets down low. John Dickson and Konner Veteto are both capable scorers inside, and the Lumberjacks don't have the bulk to match up with them. NAU will need a good shooting night from either Gabe Rogers or DeWayne Russell, but they have been struggling a bit lately.

NORTH DAKOTA 57, @ IDAHO STATE 53
North Dakota hasn't played well on the road much, but going to Pocatello might be the cure for that. ISU doesn't really have any answers offensively right now, and Troy Huff is getting more into the flow after his return from a jaw injury. I think UND will have just a little more offensively to get the win.

@ MONTANA STATE 75, PORTLAND STATE 72
Both of them teams have been inconsistent this year, and I am picking MSU because this game is in Bozeman. PSU has not shown a lot on the road yet this year, and the Vikings defense should be good for Montana State's offense. The key for both teams will be taking care of the ball... if they can limit turnovers, they should get a good amount of easy buckets.

@ MONTANA 77, EASTERN WASHINGTON 67 
EWU has the personnel to pose a problem for the Grizzlies, who may struggle to match up with guys like Venky Jois and Martin Seiferth. At the same time, the Eagles haven't necessarily shown that they are capable of slowing down playmakers such as Kareem Jamar and Will Cherry. This will be an entertaining game, but I simply think Montana is just the better team, especially in Missoula.

@ WEBER STATE 83, NORTHERN COLORADO 71
This could be the highest scoring game of the night, because both teams are talented offensively. I like Weber State's depth to wear down UNC, who had a lot of trouble late against Southern Utah. The Wildcats have been an excellent defensive rebounding team (and shot blocking), so the Bears need to hit from the outside. After leading the country by shooting 45% from downtown last year, they are just at 30.5% this year.

Anything you think will go differently?

Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball

2 comments:

  1. Another post by Jon, another jinx on my Hornets...in all seriousness the Hornets need to find their stride on the offensive end. Road wins are hard to come by but this one is a winnable game if the Hornets play a complete game. I think the Hornets will need solid bench play as I think Katz will rotate in a fair amount of players to keep fatigue levels down.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It will be tough for Northern Colorado to score anything more than 60 on Weber. Webers defense is phenomenal and this game should be in the mid 60s possession wise and I don't think Weber will give up >1 ppp, but we shall see.

    ReplyDelete