Northern Iowa and Omaha hook up for a meeting tonight and Northern Iowa comes off a great season last year where they were 19-14 but lost two key starters. Omaha is 4-7 and lost their two best players but returned three starters from last year. They're 7-3 against the spread. Both teams favor the under on their games this year with UNI going 2-5-1 to the under and Omaha going 4-6 to the under. Omaha's average score is 69-73 and UNI's is 76-65 which is in line with the total tonight but the difference is that UNI put on the burners in their last two games scoring 101 and 83 points. The trend keeps going and they put up a bunch of points tonight. Over.

Some stark patterns have developed in the Missouri Valley. Specifically with UNI, as better teams are handling the Panthers without much trouble while lesser teams are getting taken to the woodshed. To wit: the margin of victory in the five UNI wins is a whopping 32 pg, as the Panthers are hitting nearly 52% from the floor and better than 40% triples, and really rumbled in last Saturday's 101-57 romp past NIU when Jacob Hutson 22 points (in just 19 minutes!) set the tone. Meanwhile, after 20 pg scorer Frankie Fidler transferred to Michigan State, Chris Crutchfield's Omaha lacks a sharp edge, and the Mavs' currently inverted assist/TO ratio is a negative departure from a year ago. Play UNI