The NCAA Tournament is on pause until Thursday night, but the NIT picks right back up on Tuesday with some good games. North Texas will face Oklahoma State on Tuesday evening, with the winner headed to the NIT Final Four. Let’s breakdown a NIT prediction with a pick for the game.
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North Texas at Oklahoma State (Tuesday 9pm ET)
The Mean Green have been on a terrific run this season, defeating Furman and Arkansas State to advance to the third round of the NIT. However, both of those games were played in their home arena while priced as the favorite. North Texas is 17-1 at home this season, and improved to 22-3 outright when priced as the favorite this season. Now, due to how the bracket works, the Mean Green will have to travel to Stillwater to face a Big 12 opponent.
This should be a much tougher task for North Texas, which is just 9-7 away from home, and 2-5 straight up when priced as an underdog. UNT got a solid win against Minnesota back in November, and the other win as a dog came at Florida Atlantic. Most of the legitimate competition the Mean Green have faced hasn’t gone well, which includes losses to McNeese, High Point and Memphis. Being priced as a 1.5-point underdog in Stillwater is a head scratcher to me, getting the same amount of points they were getting when playing at FAU.
The Cowboys have clearly shown they are taking the NIT seriously, opening up with a double digit home win over Wichita State, and then going on the road to defeat SMU. The Mustangs were priced as the favorite to win the NIT, and Oklahoma State was catching as many as 9.5-points on the road in that one, but hung on to win by a bucket. OKST is a perfect 13-0 when priced as the favorite this season, and they’ve been extremely tough to knock off at home. The Cowboys are 13-3 in Stillwater, and those three losses came at the hands of Houston, Texas Tech and Arizona — all of which are a 4-seed or higher in the NCAA Tournament.
I’ll take the more talented team here playing with a real home court advantage to continue its NIT run.
NIT Pick: Oklahoma State Moneyline (-122) 1-unit
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All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests.
