Posted at 2:30 PM EST odds are subject to change.

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Joseph G. Echols Hall, Norfolk, VA

Coppin State +15 over Norfolk State

7:30 PM EST. Norfolk State has little to do with this play, but it does not hurt our position that the Spartans come into this game tonight after winning six straight games. In a market that values wins, those favorable results will pump up the stock of the Spartans. That Norfolk State knocked off Morgan State by 22 and Delaware State by 39 over its last two games should only further the shine of the Spartans' curb appeal. So too should Norfolk State’s 31-point win at Coppin State earlier this season.

While expectations were modest in Baltimore, the Eagles of Coppin State were hoping to step out of the basement of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Unfortunately, after posting 23 losses last season, the Eagles are on pace to eclipse that total here in 2022-23. Coppin State is just 6-21, and 1-9 in MEAC play, with four games to go including tonight.

There is no sugarcoating the Eagles' woes, which include nine losses in a row, but the point spread is supposed to be the great equalizer. Even if their record is rubbish, it is the job of the oddsmakers to find out where Coppin State rates on the scale of Division I programs and handicap their faults accordingly. However, to that end, the Eagles are just 8-18-1 Against the Spread. With only four games to play, how many more times will the books whiff on the Eagles?

It's hard to lose nine games in a row, but it’s even harder to fail to cover a number across that same span. That’s where the oddsmakers now find themselves going into tonight with Coppin State. The Eagles must be driving the books crazy. Make the Eagles a 12-point pooch at North Carolina Central, and they lose by 33. That game was a week ago tonight and in their last game on Saturday, the Eagles lost by 10 to Howard as a 6½-point underdog.

We know much more went into the process, but it’s hard not to picture a place and time where an old-school oddsmaker is hunched over his desk in the back of some dingy, smoke-filled Reno casino looking at this game and just screaming “F**K IT!,” and offering the Eagles more points tonight than they’ve been offered in any other game during conference play this season. We’re going to scoop those inflated points right up and put them in our back pockets just in case we need them.

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