the FALL MIRACLE.....
LOYOLA CHICAGO (+10) @ WISC-GREEN BAY
ILLINIOS CHICAGO (+9) @ WISC-MILWAUKEE
Both of these Chicago teams travel to Wisconsin and are 9/10 point underdogs. Starting with Loyola Chicago, they go to Green Bay where the Phoenix had a great year with all 5 returning starters last season. Now 3 key scorers are gone, all who scored 1000 points for their career, although they do retain sharpshooter Troy Cotton who might be the best shooter in the Horizon league. Aside from last season where Green Bay had their great veteran team and beat Loyola by 20 points, the prior 19 games between these 2 teams did not see Loyola come out on the losing side of double digits. It's a mixed bag for both teams this season, and Green Bay is coming off a pair of blowouts in the Dakotas while Loyola comes in with a 4 game win streak.
UIC will be playing a capable Milwaukee team who opened the season with a pair of losses to WKU and Indiana, then proceeded to defeat weak Colgate and Texas State and also have a pair of wins over non-division 1 teams. UIC has a pair of outstanding shooting guards in Zavion Neeley and Robo Kreps. Both played extremely well at Southern Illinois, and SIU arena is one of the toughest in the midwest, if not the toughest. UIC's only road blowouts last season in Horizon league play were at the best teams Wright and Butler, and they beat both Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt on the road. They played extremely well down the stretch last season and Neeley only got 10 minutes in their bad loss at Central Michigan last week. These 4 teams I'm writing about are the middle of the pack in the Horizon league and I'd give each home team about 5 or 6 points tonight. However both spreads are up around 10 and there's a reasonable chance one of these underdogs could win the game outright, so instead of trying to figure out which one, go with both.
A 1-1 split makes the most sense and is likely, but let's go for 2-0 as it seems to be more likely than going 0-2 in this circumstance.
LOYOLA CHICAGO (+10) @ WISC-GREEN BAY
ILLINIOS CHICAGO (+9) @ WISC-MILWAUKEE
Both of these Chicago teams travel to Wisconsin and are 9/10 point underdogs. Starting with Loyola Chicago, they go to Green Bay where the Phoenix had a great year with all 5 returning starters last season. Now 3 key scorers are gone, all who scored 1000 points for their career, although they do retain sharpshooter Troy Cotton who might be the best shooter in the Horizon league. Aside from last season where Green Bay had their great veteran team and beat Loyola by 20 points, the prior 19 games between these 2 teams did not see Loyola come out on the losing side of double digits. It's a mixed bag for both teams this season, and Green Bay is coming off a pair of blowouts in the Dakotas while Loyola comes in with a 4 game win streak.
UIC will be playing a capable Milwaukee team who opened the season with a pair of losses to WKU and Indiana, then proceeded to defeat weak Colgate and Texas State and also have a pair of wins over non-division 1 teams. UIC has a pair of outstanding shooting guards in Zavion Neeley and Robo Kreps. Both played extremely well at Southern Illinois, and SIU arena is one of the toughest in the midwest, if not the toughest. UIC's only road blowouts last season in Horizon league play were at the best teams Wright and Butler, and they beat both Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt on the road. They played extremely well down the stretch last season and Neeley only got 10 minutes in their bad loss at Central Michigan last week. These 4 teams I'm writing about are the middle of the pack in the Horizon league and I'd give each home team about 5 or 6 points tonight. However both spreads are up around 10 and there's a reasonable chance one of these underdogs could win the game outright, so instead of trying to figure out which one, go with both.
A 1-1 split makes the most sense and is likely, but let's go for 2-0 as it seems to be more likely than going 0-2 in this circumstance.
