Northern Illinois vs. Gonzaga Prediction and Odds for Monday, December 12 (Zags Peak Ahead to the Weekend)
By Josh Yourish
One of the biggest college basketball games of this week involves the No. 18 Gonzaga Bulldogs, but it’s not tonight against Northern Illinois.
The 7-3 Zags have a meeting with No. 8 Alabama coming up on Saturday, but first they need to get through the 3-6 NIU Huskies; coming off an 84-47 beating at the hands of Idaho.
Mark Few’s team has won two straight, but they’ve yet to look like one of the best teams in the country and maybe tonight is their breakout.
Let’s get to the odds for this one where Gonzaga is a massive favorite.
Northern Illinois vs. Gonzaga Odds, Spread and Total
Northern Illinois vs. Gonzaga Prediction and Pick
Drew Timme and the Zags are a good team, they’re a very well coached team with a talented roster, and yet, their last two wins were by seven points of Kent State and by 17 over Washington. They’re 2-7-1 against the spread and now there is a real worry that they’ll be looking ahead to their weekend meeting with Bama. Just because this could be a trap spot, doesn’t mean that this team would ever lose to NIU, but they could struggle to cover a 30+ point spread.
Timme has been great against this year, but this team is longing for more playmaking out of the front court. As currently constructed this team is Drew Timme surrounded by a lot of guards, and that can work very well at times, but they’ve already got three losses and we don’t usually see them lose their third game until the Elite Eight. They’re still being overvalued by Vegas because of the precedent they’ve set and that’s why they’re struggling so much against the spread.
They’ll need to beat Bama this weekend to stay in the top 25, so I think they look ahead and win by 15 tonight.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change