Murray State vs. Texas A&M Prediction and Odds for Thursday, November 17 (Go Under Early for Racers-Aggies)

The Murray State Racers (1-1) take on the No. 24 ranked Texas A&M Aggies (2-0) in Game 2 of the Myrtle Beach Invitational at 3 p.m. ET this afternoon from The HTC Center in Conway, SC.

Former Iowa State head coach Steve Prohm has seen his new squad play up-and-down in his tenure, with a rough start in their season opener; losing to St. Louis 91-68 on the road. The Racers bounced back in their home opener, but played against a non D1 squad in Lindsey Wilson; defeating them 90-53.

Buzz Williams' crew is back in the top 25 for the first time since January of 2017 with blowout wins against Louisiana-Monroe and Abilene Christian at home helping to vault them into the AP poll.

The Racers have a ton of talent recruited in by Prohm, but do they still need more time to gel before they can start covering double digit spreads?

Here are today's odds for Game 2 of the day in Myrtle Beach:

Murray State vs. Texas A&M Odds, Spread and Total

Murray State vs. Texas A&M Prediction and Pick

There's a lot of talent on this year's Murray State team, but between all sorts of newcomers, including Prohm at head coach, there's going to be a ton of growing pains before conference play kicks off.

It also doesn't help that they face a tenacious Buzz Williams' coached defense in the Aggies, who come in with the No. 16 adjusted efficiency defense at KenPom so far this year. A&M has held both opponents to an average of 56 points in their two victories, including just 58 to an Abilene Christian Wildcats team on Friday that's projected for a 20-plus win season.

The more coaching and adjustments Prohm makes as both the game and season go on, the more dangerous this Racers team becomes. Unfortunately for them, I don't see that being the case, especially offensively in the early going. They're taking poor shots, and only have a 42.7 effective field goal percentage, good enough for 300th in college basketball.

With A&M playing their first neutral site game away from home, and also in the middle of the afternoon, I'll bank on both teams struggling to get going offensively, along with A&M's terrific defense to hold court in the first 20 minutes.

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