Ron's Thursday College Basketball Bank Shot Best Bet

Marquette is not good enough at rebounding to lay this kind of number against a team that has seven players that are 6'8 or taller and look much improved going into 2022-23. Yes, Marquette has played a regular season game while this will be game #1 for Central Michigan, but that is an overrated angle in sports and CMU did play an exhibition against a D2 school and beat them by 27. Central Michigan returns its leading scorer from last year in Kevin Miller, brings in a very talented guard from Coppin State in Zarzuela who averaged double-digit ppg and over three assists and rebounds per game, the Hartford transfer Stafl is back and this frontcourt is not in bad shape. Marquette was ranked in the 300s in offensive and defensive rebounding percentage in 2021-22. Marquette rebounded well vs. Radford in game one, but Radford is a very small team with its starting lineup being one of the smallest in D1 hoops. Central Michigan is not an experienced team and does not have the strongest defense, which I have mentioned are two things I look for in dogs at numbers like this, but CMU's offense is underrated going into the year and there is a reason why this total is pretty steep. I expect this game to be higher-scoring and I like CMU to cover the number in the end.