College Basketball on Saturday and we will see the Detroit Titans travel to Wichita, Kansas to take on the Wichita State Shockers. The game is scheduled for a 4:00 pm (Eastern) start time and will be televised on ESPN 2. Currently the Odds for the game have Wichita State favored by 7 points while the total sits at 148.
Analysis: Ray McCallum's Titans picked up their second straight victory and sixth in seven games last weekend as they downed Valparaiso, 84-74, on the road to narrow the Crusaders' lead in the league standings to just a single game. The win improved Detroit to 18-9 on the season and put it just one game below the .500 mark in true road games. Ray McCallum, whose father is the team's head coach, paces the squad with 18.7 points and 4.7 assists per outing. Nick Minnerath is Detroit's most productive forward with 14.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. Jason Calliste has proven he can fill it up on occasion and posts 14.4 ppg with a 38.2 percent efficiency rating from beyond the arc, while Doug Anderson and Juwan Howard Jr. both serve their duties as role players well. The Titans are one of the most difficult teams to defend in the nation as indicated by their scoring average of 79.0 ppg that ranks sixth nationally. Defensively, there is room for improvement as they give up nearly 70 points per tilt.
Greg Marshall's Shockers have regained their composure since their three-game slide that consisted of setbacks to Indiana State, Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois. After being upset by the Salukis, Wichita State won three games in a row before avenging their loss to the Sycamores on Tuesday with a 66-62 victory at the Hulman Center in Terre Haute. Cleanthony Early, who leads the squad with 14.6 ppg, pumped in 19 points to guide the Shockers past ISU, which improved their record to an impressive 23-5. Early had plenty of help in WSU's victory over ISU on Tuesday as Malcolm Armstead added 18 points, Demetric Williams tallied 12 points and seven boards and Carl Hall got into the mix with 10 points. After the contest progressed into the intermission tied up at 25, the Shockers connected on 44.4 percent of their field goal tries to arrive at the four-point decision. The reserves played a huge role to help WSU hold a 26-2 advantage in bench points. Although Marshall's team is not quite as explosive as the visitors with a scoring average of 69.0 ppg, it is very good on the boards (38.3 rpg) and is even better defensively with just 59.2 allowed points per outing.
Pick: I like the Titans in this one. This Detroit offense is exceptional and can really score on anyone, even a tough defense like Wichita State. I feel that the Detroit offense will put enough points on the board to keep this one close. The Titans are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games vs a winning team. Look for a possible upset by the Titans in this one.
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