The biggest favorite on the Caesars Sportsbook college basketball board Tuesday night is Oakland at -23 against IUPUI in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament. Yes, the host Golden Grizzlies are much better than the Jaguars, but that spread is so big because IUPUI only has five players available due to injury/transfers, etc.
IUPUI (3-25, 1-16) might be the worst program in the country right now and things were so bad with player losses about a month ago that the school held open tryouts just to fill out the roster. The Jaguars – whose three wins are over two lower-tier schools called Spalding, East-West University and a stunner at Robert Morris in Horizon play -- had only six guys available for Saturday's regular-season finale, a 67-41 home loss to Green Bay.
Alas one of the starters, sophomore Bakari LaStrap, lasted three minutes before leaving with injury so he's presumably the one out tonight. Those available Tuesday: graduate transfer guard BJ Maxwell (12.4 ppg), senior guard Nathan McClure (6.1 ppg), junior guard Mike DePersia (6.4 ppg), freshman guard Boston Stanton (4.4 ppg) and freshman forward Chuks Isitua (5.4). IUPUI lost by 33 at home to Oakland in the lone regular-season meeting on Dec. 4 when it had 10 players who saw action.
The Golden Grizzlies (19-11, 12-7 HL) are the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament and +550 to win it. Jamal Cain (20.1 ppg, 10.2 rpg) was named the Horizon League Co-Player of the Year with Detroit's Antoine Davis. It's the first time the award has been shared since 1983. Oakland reached the 2021 Horizon League Tournament final but lost to Cleveland State 80-69.
Cleveland State was the regular-season champion this year and a +220 favorite to repeat as tournament champion followed by IPFW (+350), Wright State (+450), Northern Kentucky (+450) and Oakland (+550). A $5,000 wager at Caesars has come in on Wright State +500 ($25,000 potential winnings), Northern Kentucky +500 ($25,000 potential winnings) and Youngstown State +2500 ($125,000 potential winnings).
The first two rounds are held on the campus of the higher seed and the tournament is re-seeded after each round. The quarterfinals are Thursday.
"This is definitely one of the most wide-open tournaments," said Adam Pullen, Assistant Director of Trading at Caesars Sportsbook. "When you look at the standings and the odds, the top-5 teams are legitimate contenders to win this. In most conferences, you'll usually have two or three frontrunners. You can make a legitimate argument for a lot of teams in this conference, and it's one where we've seen some crazy upsets in past years."
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