Manhattan (20-10)
+9, o/u 145
at Old Dominion (22-9), 9 p.m. Eastern
by Ultimatecapper.com Staff
Two teams that pulled road upsets in first-round NIT games last week meet Monday in Norfolk as the Manhattan Jaspers take on the Old Dominion Monarchs in a second-round match-up.
Manhattan has won four of its last five games after upsetting Maryland Saturday 87-84 as 11-point road dogs. Although this is technically the second round of the NIT, this is the Jaspers third game in the tournament. They beat Fairleigh Dickinson in the opening round last week. Old Dominion had an opening round bye.
The Monarchs have won five of their last six games after beating Colorado 79-61 as seven-point road dogs last Wednesday.
Manhattan won the Metro Atlantic Conference regular-season title, but got beat by St. Peters in the conference tournament semis. Old Dominion went 13-5 in the Colonial Conference, then got beat by Northeastern in the conference tournament.
Manhattan is 13-14 vs. the number this season, but 7-3 ats as underdogs and 8-5 ats on the road (9-6 straight up). The Jaspers have also won outright six of the ten games in which they've gotten points.
Old Dominion is 14-15 against the spread this season, 12-12 ats as chalk, 13-1 straight up but 5-8 ats at home.
Versus common opponents this season, Manhattan lost to George Mason 72-66, while Old Dominion split two games with the Patriots; and both teams beat Fordham by 13 points.
In games against teams that made the NCAA tournament this season, the Jaspers lost to Seton Hall and Syracuse, and beat Iona twice. The Monarchs lost to Wisconsin and UAB, and beat UNC-Wilmington.
Statistically, the teams are fairly even. One advantage the Monarchs would seem to have is on the boards, where OD owns a +3.1 rebounds per game margin this season. The Jaspers are being outrebounded by 1.7 per game.
In the RPI at NCAAsports.com, Old Dominion is ranked 69th, Manhattan 87th. The Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings at usatoday.com rank the Monarchs #60 at 81.7, the Jaspers #132 at 75.1
In the Sagarin conference ratings, the Colonial is ranked 11th out of 31 Division 1 leagues, while the MAAC is ranked 14th.
The over is a collective 34-22 in Manhattan and Old Dominion games this season.
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The Ultimatecapper Pick: Tough spread here. We don't find any value here so can't recommend anything.
