I rarely bet true road teams but this isn't one -- they were supposed to play Sunday at Murray State (which is in Kentucky, if you don't know) but there's some sort of power issue on campus so it's being played on the campus of Belmont in Nashville about 120 miles away in I'm sure a mostly empty gym. So we get to practice some neutral-site betting for next month. UNI has the added motivation of payback for a 61-58 home loss in the series in January when the Racers shot 57.1% from deep. Northern Iowa is third in Division I in shooting 49.8% from the field. UNI is also 14th nationally in effective field goal percentage (56.6%).

Northern Iowa is 17-9 sitting third in the Missouri Valley Conference and only two games from this time last year's overall total of 19-14. Coach Ben Jacobson should have brought back all five starters from last year but two transferred and three stayed, but they're doing better than last year. They lost two straight to Murray State but they're on a four-game win streak including one road win. They're 4-4 on the road this year. Murray State is 13-13 and 10-14 against the spread. Northern Iowa to get the win.

This is now being played on a neutral court due to yesterday's power outage. The Racers won the first meeting of the season on the road by three. Northern Iowa is currently leading the conference in field goal percentage as compared to the Racers, currently in 10th place. Murray State is 1-3 SU and ATS in their last four home games and are only 6-5 SU at home on the season. The Panthers are in better current form shooting 57.1% effectively and holding opponents to less than 67 points over their last three games.