SIU Edwardsville did win two of its final three regular-season games but those were at home -- this team got crushed when leading scorer Ray'Sean Taylor was lost for the season in late January. Tennessee State isn't all that great but did sweep both vs. SIUE. The Tigers placed Kassim Nicholson and Carlos Marshall Jr. on the All-OVC second team. Nicholson, a graduate transfer from UAB, was second in the OVC with 11 double-doubles. We had to wait on this one for the status of TSU's Marcus Fitzgerald (11.7 ppg) after he missed the regular-season finale, but he's starting. This is at a neutral site in Evansville.

On Wednesday morning, I gave out Tennessee State in its first-round matchup against SIU-Edwardsville. The spread has since climbed a point, changing my stance from spread to money line. Tennessee State has already defeated SIU twice, including by sixteen points on Feb. 17. Take the Tigers.