Furman Paladins at The Citadel Bulldogs 1/31/19 – College Basketball Pick
The Paladins and the Bulldogs are going to mix it up on Thursday night. However, the game is one that is going to have a lot of back and forth inside of it, but the important factor to remember is the Furman squad has at one time been ranked in the top 25 this year. However, now the Paladins are a team that have been snapped back to reality and actually are showing that they are a team that can be beaten. The Citadel for all they have done on the year have started to struggle quite a bit on the season and that is definitely going to be something the Bulldogs have to overcome if they want to be seen as a serious threat.
Furman Paladins Preview
Furman is coming into the game here after a recent loss in which the Paladins were unable to hang onto a 10 point lead. The worst part is the loss and the lead they could not hold onto was against Samford and that is one team that the Paladins should have easily been able to control, but much like the reasons why the Paladins are not in the top 25 anymore, the defense faltered and allowed the Samford squad back in. That is an area of concern for sure for the Paladins as the Bulldogs are not much worse than Samford.
The Paladins on the season have managed to score a total of 78.9 points a game. The leading scorer for the Paladins is Matt Rafferty who also leads the Paladins in assist as well. Rafferty on the season has been able to get 17.7 points a game and 4.3 assists a game. What else will not help the Paladins out is the reliance they have on Raffferty again as he leads in rebounds with 9.1 a game out of the teams 37.1. Defensively the Furman team is only giving up 67.3 points a game.
The Citadel Bulldogs Preview
The Citadel squad has been able to play decent on the year as they have reached the five hundred mark overall. The downside is the conference play for the Bulldogs has shown them as a struggling squad and one that can be beaten fairly easily. One thing The Citadel did was just broke their losing streak and that was with a 2 point win over VMI. The key thing to note is in almost all of the losses for the Bulldogs this year is the fact they have been within a point or two almost all season.
Coming into this game the Bulldogs have been able to get 18.7 points a game from Lew Stallworth, but he is a small fry out of the 90.1 points the Bulldogs get each game on average. The other part of the game Stallworth excels in is assist as he has managed to get 6.2 a game out of the 16.8 the team gets each game. When it comes to the rebounding the Bulldogs have been led by Zane Najdawi who has pulled in 7.3 boards a game out of the teams 38.3. When it comes to defense the Bulldogs have given up 86.3 points a game.
Paladins at Bulldogs Line: Furman Paladins -7 O/U 164.5
My Free College Basketball Pick: The Citadel Bulldogs +7
The Bulldogs have been keeping the games really close and after Furman could not hold onto a lead against Samford, it is going to be a challenge for the Paladins to hold onto a lead against a very high powered offensive team like The Citadel. Look for the offensive power of The Citadel to play a factor in this game, but sadly the Bulldogs are going to fall short, but they will prevent Furman from covering the spread in this game as the final score I think will be right around 82-77.
