Ball State Cardinals vs Northern Kentucky Norse Prediction, 11/25/2020 College Basketball Pick, Tips and Odds

Game: Ball State Cardinals vs Northern Kentucky Norse

Date: Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Location: BB&T Arena in Highland Heights, KY

TV: ESPN3

Odds/Point Spread: Ball State (-1)

BB&T Arena is the venue where and the Northern Kentucky Norse (23-9 last year) will take on the Ball State Cardinals (18-13 last season) on Wednesday. The odds on this contest have Ball State as 1-point favorites. The over/under is set at 135.5.

The Ball State Cardinals faced the Northern Illinois Huskies and took home the win by a score of 75-54 in their last contest of last season. Ball State wrapped up the contest with a 51.2% field goal percentage (22 of 43) and buried 10 of their 23 shots from beyond the arc. At the charity stripe, the Cardinals knocked down 21 of their 24 attempts for a rate of 87.5%. In terms of getting rebounds, they collected 37 with 5 of them being offensive. They also recorded 10 dimes for the contest as well as having 2 steals and 3 blocks. With respect to defending, Ball State allowed 51.2% from the floor by going 22 out of 43. Northern Illinois earned 10 assists and 9 steals for this contest. On top of that, the Huskies had 23 boards (11 offensive, 12 defensive) and had 3 blocks. Northern Illinois ended up shooting 66.7% from the charity stripe by converting 12 of 18 shots. They also made 6 of their 27 tries from beyond the perimeter. Ishmael El-Amin is a player who played a lot in the game. He accumulated 12 points on 5 out of 11 shooting. He saw the court for 31 mins played and also snagged 2 rebounds. El-Amin ended up shooting 45.5% from the field and also earned 2 dimes. Another guy that saw a lot of time on the hardwood in this contest for the Cardinals was Kyle Mallers. He snagged 6 boards and earned 2 assists. He ended up shooting 66.7% from the floor for this game by connecting on 4-of-6 (12 points). When the final whistle blew, Mallers played for 29 min.

Ball State comes into this contest after finishing with a win-loss record of 18-13 last year. They had an average of 69.5 pts per game (227th in college basketball) while hitting 42.7% from the floor. The Cardinals shot 33.6% on shots from beyond the arc (283 of 842) and 69.3% from the charity stripe. As a unit Ball State collected 36.1 boards per game and earned 417 dimes last year, which ranked 157th in the country in terms of passing the ball. They gave up possession 13.3 times per game and as a squad committed 16.0 fouls every game. When they were on defense the Cardinals were able to force 13.6 turnovers per game while drawing 16.4 fouls. They were ranked 12th in college basketball in allowing assists 305 conceded last season. The Cardinals defensively gave up an opponent FG percentage of 40.1% (708 of 1,766) and they surrendered 34.7 boards per contest as a team. They gave up 30.7% on shots from beyond the perimeter while they were 18th in college basketball in PPG allowed (62.5).

The last time they took the court, the Northern Kentucky Norse got the victory with a final of 71-62 against the UIC Flames. The Norse collected 19 defensive rebounds and 4 offensive rebounds for a total of 23 for the matchup. They also rejected 2 tries while getting 11 steals in the game. The Flames had 25 fouls for this contest which got the Norse to the charity stripe for a total of 29 attempts. They were able to bury 19 of the free throw tries for a percentage of 65.5%. With respect to shooting from downtown, Northern Kentucky converted 6 of their 21 attempts (28.6%). At the conclusion of this game, the Norse ended up going 23 for 46 from the field which gave them a rate of 50.0%. The Norse allowed the Flames to bury 24 of 55 tries from the floor which had them shooting 43.6% for the contest. They finished 20.0% from distance by going 3 of 15 and finished the contest at 11 of 18 at the charity stripe (61.1%). When discussing how they attacked the glass, Northern Kentucky allowed UIC to snag 34 in all (9 offensive). Tyler Sharpe saw a lot of time on the hardwood for the Norse in this contest. He buried 5 out of 12 in the matchup for a field goal rate of 41.7%, which had him sitting at 16 points. Sharpe snagged 2 rebounds in his 38 mins and totaled 3 dimes in the game. Another guy that ended up coming through for Northern Kentucky was Trevon Faulkner. He ended up scoring 13 points in 38 minutes on the court by going 4 out of 5 from the floor for the matchup. Faulkner wrapped this one up going 80.0% from the floor while collecting 2 assists and 3 rebounds.

Northern Kentucky had a win-loss record of 23-9 last season. Northern Kentucky tallied 2,317 pts throughout last season (72.4 per contest) and they pulled down 36.6 boards per game. As an offense the Norse connected on 43.3% from the field, which was ranked 199th in the country. The Norse were responsible for committing 17.9 fouls every game and they hit 68.9% from the charity stripe. Their rate of assisting teammates was at 13.6 times per contest (130th in the nation) and they lost possession via turnover 12.5 times per contest. The Norse were ranked 64th in D-1 in PPG allowed with 65.3. They conceded 12.5 assists and 37.0 boards per game, which was ranked 175th and 284th in college hoops. The Northern Kentucky defense from outside the perimeter relinquished 29.3% from downtown (185 of 632) and opponents knocked down 66.8% of their shots from the charity stripe. They were able to force 14.5 TO's per game and let teams shoot 41.4% from the field (84th in college hoops).

So what is Tonights Parlay prediction?

Parlay's Pundit's Pick: Take Northern Kentucky (+1) and over 135.5 points

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