Fargo’s IUPUI vs Northeastern Picks
November 11, 2008
Matt Fargo continues to provide winning NCAA basketball picks. Here, he looks at a game between two lesser-known schools, IUPUI and Northeastern. The college basketball odds show Northeastern as a 6.5 point favorite. Let’s see who Matt likes in the game and why.
**7** NCAA Hoops Tuesday TOP PLAY Side** Northeastern has provided some good efforts over the last couple seasons and it should do so again this season. The Huskies will be in the thick of three CAA race as they return all five starters from the 14-17 (9-9) team from last season. Seven of those losses came by six points or fewer, including two-point losses to Maryland and Boston College, so things could have been a lot better last season. While this is not the cream of the CAA crop, it is one of the better teams in that strong yet underrated conference.
The Huskies are led by guard Matt Janning who is a preseason All-CAA selection. He is one of the league’s best shooters and with All-CAA rookie point guard Chase Allen, this is one of the stronger backcourts in the conference. Forward Manny Adako leads the Huskies frontcourt as he averaged 10.6 ppg as a sophomore and his 57 percent shooting from the floor was 4th in CAA last season. Northeastern also bring in some solid JUCO transfers so this team is going to be deep.
Every four years, college teams get to start practice early and play some summer and fall exhibition games. That is the case for the Huskies as they traveled to Canada where they were able to play seven games, going 6-1. The wins mean little but the experience of playing together before every other team is absolutely enormous. They will face the Jaguars who made a run in the Summit Conference last season before falling in the Conference Finals to Oral Roberts.
IUPUI will be above average but the loss of NBA first round draft pick George Hill is going to hurt. He led the team in scoring, rebounding and assists so his absence will be felt. Taking over as the go to guy will be senior guard Gary Patterson who averaged 12.9 ppg and was lethal from long range. The problem tonight is that Patterson will not play as he is dealing with a broken hand. He is the lone senior on the team. In total, there are six newcomers on the team and there will be early inconsistencies for sure. 7* Northeastern Huskies
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