East Tennessee State won the first meetings of the season, but the Keydets covered. VMI is 9-1 ATS in conference play while also being 3-1 ATS as home underdogs. The Buccaneers are 0-2-1 ATS as away favorites, shooting less than 48% effectively on the road. They’re also near the bottom in the country in terms of free throw percentage. VMI is shooting over 50% effectively at home while also shooting above 81% from the line. They may not be the better rebounding team, but they create turnovers and are able to draw fouls driving to the basket.

It's been a while since we were extolling the virtues of VMI. Yet all of a sudden, the Keydets are the team to watch in the SoCon with wins in five of six, and one spread L their last eleven. This uprising appears to be fueled by 6-8 Lithuanian soph F Augustinas Kiudulas (15.9 ppg), on fire the past couple of weeks by scoring 20+ in three of the last four, while boomerang transfer G Rickey Bradley, Jr (15.6 ppg) burned WCU for 23 in Saturday's VMI win. As for ETSU, it plays 'em close, with seven of the last nine decided by single digits. The Keydets also never trailed by more than the final margin in the Jan. 4 clash. Play VMI.

East Tennessee State has won six straight meetings, including 84-69 on Jan. 1 in Johnson City, Tenn. But this is a much-improved Keydets team. They're coming off a 2-0 road trip and have won five of their past six conference games, the loss coming by three to UNC Greensboro. Ricky Bradley Jr. (15.6 ppg, 3.3 apg), Augustinas Kiudulas (15.9 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 41 percent on 3-pointers) and TJ Johnson (13.0 ppg, 38.2 percent from deep) give VMI a dangerous trio that can keep the Keydets competitive in this payback spot.