Minnesota vs. Penn State College Basketball prediction, preview
Minnesota enters Sunday afternoon’s game in Happy Valley on a six-game losing streak. Penn State enters on an eight-game losing streak. Feel free to fact check me here, but somebody is going to have to win this game.
While both losing streaks are alarming, I can make the case that the Golden Gophers are much more due for a win. Minnesota has been an underdog in five of the six losses, and in seven of its last eight games overall. Three of the losses have been as an underdog of +8 or more, all of which the Gophers covered. And going back to the two games they were priced as a dog prior to the losing streak, Minnesota pulled outright upsets over Northwestern and Iowa.
To recap the six losses, they’ve come by one point to USC, a buzzer beater loss to Wisconsin, a 10-point loss to Illinois, an overtime loss at Ohio State, a blowout loss to Nebraska that the Gophers led at half, and a four-point loss in the rematch at Wisco. Yes, they’ve come up short, but Minnesota has given good effort and competed in these games.
When we dig in on Penn State, the Nittany Lions are not competing. Forget the losing streak, this team hasn’t been competing against any real competition all season. PSU has nine wins this season — eight of them have been as a favorite of at least 11.5 points. The other one was as an 8.5-point favorite over LaSalle. The Nittany Lions faced almost no tests out of conference, with the tough games being Providence and Pittsburgh. Both games had tight point spreads, and PSU lost those games by a combined 46 points.
Somehow, Penn State hung tough with some of the elite teams in the Big Ten earlier in January, but that stretch has come to a close. Recent outings for the Nittany Lions have resulted in losses by 21 points to Northwestern, six points to Ohio State, 27 points to Wisconsin, 23 points to Maryland and nine points to UCLA.
I’ll take the Golden Gophers to finally get over the hump in Happy Valley.
CBB Pick: Minnesota ML (-120)
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