Northern Colorado Bears (1-4) vs North Dakota State Bison (1-4)
Friday, November 25, 2022 at 9:30 pm
Northern Colorado head coach Steve Smiley returns the best backcourt tandem in the Big Sky Conference in Daylen Kountz and Matt Johnson II. Kountz toyed with entering the NBA Draft before electing to return as a fifth-year senior, while Johnson enters his sixth season with the program. Johnson has started every game over the last three seasons and ranked eighth in the conference in assists, third in three-point percentage, and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio last year. After serving as Northern Colorado’s sixth-man last season, senior guard Dalton Knecht currently leads the team in both scoring (16.0 ppg) and rebounding (6.6 rpg). Freshman Caleb Shaw led his high school to the Arizona 3A state title last year and has made an immediate impact for the Bears, averaging 8.0 points across 23.4 minutes per game. Depth and versatility define Northern Colorado’s roster and the Bears are hungry to avenge last year’s heartbreaking loss to Montana State in the conference championship game. My math model favors Northern Colorado by 0.7 points in this game and the Bears are a perfect 7-0 ATS on the road after failing to cover the spread in two of their last three games over the last three seasons. Grab the points with Northern Colorado and invest with confidence.