(2) Iowa State vs. (15) South Dakota State: Betting Tips, Prediction, and Betting Odds

Iowa State is one of the hottest teams in the country right now. They upset the No. 1 team in the country, Houston, by 28 points in the Big 12 Championship. They also don’t have a bad loss on the season. South Dakota State will have to face them after winning the Summit Championship. South Dakota State has 12 losses on the year and are 15.5 point underdogs to Iowa State in this first-round matchup.

Iowa State has lost just seven games and five of them were against ranked opponents. The other two games that they lost were against Power 5 conference opponents with a winning record. Facing South Dakota State shouldn’t be a huge obstacle for them.

South Dakota State has won eight games in a row. However, they also have very few big wins. Their regular season schedule has been one of the easiest of any team in the tournament. Obviously not many people are picking them to win this game but they could potentially cover this spread if they can score against Iowa State, which I wouldn’t count on.

Iowa State -15.5 is available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.

This season South Dakota State hasn’t played many quality teams. Still, they did play Akron, Kansas State, and Central Florida. Two of those games they kept under 16 points on the spread. This team has covered the spread 55% of the time and has covered it in eight of their last 10 games. There were three games this year that they lost by more than 15 points though and Iowa State is better than every team they have seen.

Iowa State just beat Houston by 28 points, so why couldn’t they beat South Dakota State by 16 points? They also just beat Kansas State a few games ago by 19 points who beat South Dakota State earlier this year by 23 points. This Iowa State team is hot and I expect them to continue to easily roll over a team like South Dakota State on their way to the second round.

Under 134.5 Total Points is available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.

This is one of the lower totals on Thursday and for good reason. Iowa State has one of the top defenses in the country. Points should be few and far between for this South Dakota State team who recently scored just 59 points two games ago against St. Thomas Minnesota. South Dakota State has hit over this total in 85% of their games this season but hasn’t seen a defense like Iowa State or anything even close to it.

This total is about in line for Iowa State games. They have hit over 134.5 points in 53% of their games. The difference in this game is their opponent. Iowa State allows just 61.3 points on average. South Dakota State may struggle to get to 50 against them. Unless Iowa State scores 10 or more points over their season average, I like this under on the points total.

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