It’s not the Ja Morant days anymore, it’s not even the KJ Williams, Tevin Brown days of last year, but the Murray State Racers in March still draw the eye.
Last year, Murray State was a seven seed in the NCAA tournament and this year it is the seven seed in the MVC tournament. Yesterday the Racers beat the No. 10 seed, Valparaiso, 78-50.
Murray State finished the year, 11-9 in conference play, and two of those nine losses came to the No. 2 seed in the conference, the Drake Bulldogs.
Drake last made the tournament in 2021 and it is looking to get back by winning the MVC tournament. The Bulldogs were 24-7 and 15-5 in conference play this year.
Let’s check out the odds for this MVC quarterfinal matchup.
Murray State vs. Drake odds, spread and total
Murray State vs. Drake prediction and pick
Drake lost its last game of the season to Bradley, 73-61 on Feb. 26 and its goal is to get another shot at the No. 1 team in the conference in the championship.
The Bulldogs shouldn’t have much of a problem getting past the Racers to get into the conference semis. Drake is 30th in defensive efficiency against a Murray State team that barely scored 70 points a game and shoots just 44.3% which is 206th in college basketball.
Drake is also the No. 1 rebounding team in the MVC and commits the least amount of turnovers, so Murray State won’t get any cheap possessions.
The Racers are 225th in KenPom this year and maybe the worst stat is that they’re 16th in the country in KenPom’s luck rating and still only managed a 17-14 record. They dominated Valpo, and Jamari Smith had 19 points in just 22 minutes for Murray State, but he only combined for 13 points in two games against Drake this year.
Their leading scorer, Rob Perry had seven and nine points in those two games.
Pick: Drake -10.5 (-115)
Follow all Josh Yourish’s bets HERE
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change
