As we await the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament in San Antonio on Saturday night, the NIT Final Four had an exciting finish on Tuesday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indy. UC Irvine and Chattanooga advanced to the NIT Championship Game, which we’ll breakdown below with picks and predictions.
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Chattanooga vs. UC Irvine (Thursday 9pm ET)
Both of these teams have come out and had pretty slow starts in the NIT, and I think we may see that trend continue here in the Championship Game. The Anteaters have trailed during the first half of every game in this tournament, including a pretty big hole to North Texas on Tuesday before evening the score at halftime. The Mocs went wire-to-wire in their only home game of the NIT against Dayton, but all three games away from home have seen slow first halves.
Chattanooga, trailed at halftime by five points at Middle Tennessee, 13 at Bradley and then by four on Tuesday to Loyola Chicago. While the Mocs have a high powered offense, we haven’t seen it come into play early in games. UCI boasts a top-25 defense in the country, so when we combine that with some potential tightness in the NIT Championship, we may see a slow start again here. I think UCI dictates tempo early, making the first half under worth a play in this one.
While the Anteaters have made some sizable comebacks in the NIT, the Mocs have truly been second half darlings. All three of those halftime games they trailed that I mentioned above, the Mocs came back to win, despite being the underdog in the game. Chattanooga has actually won all four NIT games as an underdog, giving the Mocs a ridiculous eight wins in a row when priced as a dog. Chattanooga is 11-2 ATS as the underdog this season, covering by 7.9 points.
Pregame I lean towards the Mocs +4, but I’ll let the first half grind out and potentially line up a second half play if the spot presents itself.
NIT Leans: 1H UNDER 69 (-110) 1-unit and/or Chattanooga 2H depending on how the game goes
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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.
