663 NORTHERN IOWA @ 664 SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
Take: NORTHERN IOWA +3.5
This has not been a banner season for Northern Iowa. The 2015-16 campaign ended in ghastly fashion for the Panthers with the unfortunately memorable collapse of the ages against Texas A&M in the NCAA Tournament.
Even with a somewhat different cast of characters, I expected UNI to perhaps struggle early, and that was certainly the case. But it ended up being worse than anticipated and the team seemed to really lose its way after absorbing a couple of ugly beatings against Iowa and North Carolina.
This carried over to the start of MVC play, but that’s also about the time I started looking for a spot to get on the Panthers. The team is not nearly as good as the previous edition, no doubt about that. But I was also convinced they weren’t as terrible as their early season conference play indicated.
I decided to get on Northern Iowa last Sunday as I really liked the spot against a Drake team in a big bounce situation. That worked out well as UNI got an easy win. I then made up my mind to simply start riding the Panthers as a decent value commodity. It wasn’t easy, but they did get the 2OT win and cover Wednesday against Loyola Chicago.
With two wins in the books, I like the idea of staying with what I think is, at least for the time being, an undervalued team. The Panthers finally have a little positive momentum now, and I like the idea of riding them again on Saturday as they visit Southern Illinois. I’m taking the points on Saturday with Northern Iowa.