Saturday featured a ton of noteworthy SEC action, with Arkansas and Florida both earning wins over ranked teams.
Meanwhile, Kentucky, Texas A&M, South Carolina, Auburn, Tennessee, Mississippi State, and Missouri all picked up victories as well.
There’s only one game on today’s schedule, with LSU hosting UNC Wilmington.
As always, my predictions are based on team analysis and who I think will win. Score projections are for my own amusement.
Season Predictions Record (straight up): 101-20
UNC Wilmington at LSU – 5 PM EST, SEC Network+
The Tigers haven’t played since November 29, but have already showed signs of significant improvement in year one under Will Wade.
I talked to Wade last week on my weekly college basketball show, Forever March, and he discussed is biggest takeaways from the team’s trip to Maui.
One of the things that we talked specifically about was this team’s defense, which was obviously the main weakness last season. LSU is indeed getting better on that end of the floor, and it’s just a matter of getting all five games on the same page on every possession.
Of course, offensively, everything has gone through Tremont Waters. The freshman is averaging 18 points and six assists per game, and his best is yet to come.
As for UNC Wilmington, C.B. McGrath hasn’t found much success in his first season on the job, but his squad has played decent competition. The Seahawks have lost to Loyola Chicago (who beat Florida earlier this week), Davidson, Valparaiso, and East Carolina (bad loss), with the only wins of the year coming against North Carolina Wesleyan and Campbell.
Unfortunately for UNC Wilmington, it hasn’t played good defense, and that’s an issue against an LSU team that can score.
The Seahawks may have enough on offense to keep up, as Devontae Cacok has been stellar this year in averaging 19.3 points and 13.0 rebounds per contest.
This should be a high-scoring affair, but I’m gonna give the edge to the Tigers due to being a bit more consistent on defense.
Prediction: LSU 87, UNC Wilmington 79
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