Northern Illinois-Kent State: Basketball Betting, March 10, 2009

Northern Illinois vs. Kent State

March 10, 2009, 2:00PM—Courtesy of Ted Sevransky

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Kent State played 15 games away from home this year. They lost 10 of those games outright. Three times they earned narrow victories, winning in overtime at Saint Louis, in overtime at the same Northern Illinois team they’ll face today, and by seven at Ball State.

Only twice in those 15 non-home games did the Golden Flashes beat anyone by this type of margin, with only one of those victories coming in MAC play. Six of their last seven victories overall came by seven points or less.

Even for the superior team, this point spread looks awfully high.

Northern Illinois has gotten better as the season has progressed, and they enter MAC tournament play having won three of their last five and four out of seven.

There was nothing fraudulent about the Huskies taking the Golden Flashes to overtime in the lone previous meeting between these two teams this year.

Northern Illinois shot only 37 percent from the floor in that game, and they missed a whopping 18 free throws, yet they were still able to hang around for 45 full minutes. Kent State didn’t own the paint, they didn’t get good offensive looks all evening long, and the Huskies defensive pressure forced 23 Golden Flashes turnovers.

Expect this game to be more competitive than the betting marketplace expects.

(#575) 2* Take Northern Illinois.