Southern Miss Golden Eagles vs. South Alabama Jaguars: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 2/16/2023

Time: 8 p.m. ET

Venue: Mitchell Center, Mobile, AL

Where to watch: ESPN+

DraftKings: Southern Miss -1

FanDuel: Southern Miss -1.5

BetMGM: Southern Miss -1.5

Caesars: Southern Miss -1

Southern Miss: 23-4 (12-2 Sun Belt)

South Alabama: 13-14 (6-8 Sun Belt)

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Southern Miss: won 76-67 vs. Louisiana-Monroe

South Alabama: won 77-53 vs. Hartford

Have you ever looked at how eight team is playing so well this season and you would think that they should be in the top 25, but they aren't and you sit around wondering why in the world things are the way that they are? That is how I feel with the Southern Miss Golden Eagles right now, currently 23-4 on the season and well on their way to a regular season sunbelt conference championship with only a few games left before the conference tournament.

 

Now, don't get me wrong. There's still a lot of basketball left to be played before we can go ahead and crown Southern Miss as the Champions outright. Marshall and Louisiana would have a word with you if you thought that the Golden Eagles would run away with the conference in general. But with four games remaining against winnable teams albeit three of them on the road, Southern Miss is in good position starting on Thursday in a road game against the South Alabama Jaguars in Mobile.

 

Southern Miss is coming into this game winners of nine straight and boasts A12-2 conference record. The Golden Eagles are coming off a 76-67 victory open Louisiana Monroe last week. When you think about Southern Miss as a whole you think of of balanced attack that can beat you in many different ways. The scoring starts and ends with Austin Crowley, the guard who is averaging 16.9 points per game and shooting 48.1% from the field.

 

Crowley is fifth in the conference in scoring and there's also shooting 36.1% from 3 point range good for top five in the conference. Southern Miss is a very well balanced team averaging 75.7 points per game while giving up only 64. They do average close to 9 steals a game and block close to three shots per game, so they are able to impact the game in many different ways. That's why they have been so dominant in conference play and that's why they have not lost a game since losing to Marshall by 22 points back on January 12th.

 

South Alabama really does not pose much of a threat entering this game. The Jaguars have been a pretty pedestrian team but have won five of their last six and seemed to have gotten something rolling heading into the final couple of weeks of the regular season. If South Alabama is going to have any chance of winning this game it is going to have to be with the play of leading scorer Isaiah Moore. The guard leads the Jaguars in scoring at 18.7 points per game on an astonishing 53% shooting, while dishing out a team high 4.5 assists. He is going to be the tone setter for South Alabama and is going to need to have a big game in order to give his team a chance to pull off the upset. Moore has scored over 20 points in four the last six games.

 

I do think South Alabama might be able to benefit from having a homecourt advantage, but I am curious at Southern Miss only having to lay one point in this game period it is a rather low total and I do think that there is some caution among the books that South Alabama might be able to pull off the upset. But I am going to stick with the favorite in a rather close game and I do believe that the conference favorite will continue to show why it is conference favorite. Southern Miss 77, South Alabama 71

Southern Miss is 12-5 ATS as a favorite this season.

Southern Miss is 6-1 ATS after winning 15 of 20 this season.

South Alabama is 10-3 ATS after allowing 55 points or less the last 3 seasons.

PG: Mo Arnold

SG: Austin Crowley

SF: Denijay Harris

PF: DeAndre Pinckney

C: Felipe Haase

PG: Tyrell Jones

SG: Isaiah Moore

SF: Judah Brown

PF: Owen White

C: Kevin Samuel