Posted at 4:00 PM EST odds are subject to change.

Pinnacle -11½ -103  BET365  -11½ -110 Sportsinteraction -11½ -110 888Sport -11½ -110

Norfolk Scope Arena, Norfolk, VA

Streaming: ESPN+

North Carolina Central -11½ over Delaware St

8:00 PM EST. This is the mismatch of the day but it is not priced as such and so we’ll try to take advantage of a soft line. Delaware State routinely got blown out this season when the opposition showed up. They are ranked the 355th best team in America out of 363 Division I schools. Don’t be fooled by DSU’s 10 point loss to Villanova or 14-point loss to Penn State because those two teams had horrendous shooting performances when they played the Hornets. Pay more attention to the Hornets 95-57 loss to Va Tech, their 95-60 loss to UConn, their 80-53 loss to Liberty, their 75-49 loss to Longwood, their 85-52 loss to Drexel, and their 97-58 loss to Norfolk St. Delaware State’s last five games of the regular season saw them lose four times but they were within striking distance in all of them, thus, they appear to be in better form but that’s an illusion. Four of those games were at home. Furthermore, games in these one-bid conferences down the stretch mean very little unless teams are playing for a division title, which none were so there was no urgency among weak teams that were gearing up for the conference tournament. The MEAC is a one-bid conference, therefore North Carolina Central has one path and one path only to the Dance and it begins here.

Although the Eagles finished second in the conference to Howard, we’d argue they are the best team in the MEAC and they aren’t getting enough credit for what they have done this season, both in their non-conference schedule and overall schedule too. North Carolina Central played the 30th-toughest non-conference schedule in the nation. Finishing at .500 was not only impressive, but it rarely was blown out by even top teams in the nation. The Eagles lost to Virginia and Marquette by just 12 each game. They lost to LSU by just 10. They finished 10-4 in the conference but could have easily been 14-0 because they lost three games by four points or less including one OT loss and the other loss was by six points. They are ranked 180 positions higher than DSU and they played a massively tougher schedule but this line does not reflect any of that.

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