2021-22 Summit League Basketball Preview
Summit League Basketball Preseason Predictions
WagerTalk college basketball handicapper Adam Trigger offers his thoughts on the upcoming 2021-22 Summit League Basketball season. Which teams are being underrated by the betting market? Which teams should you stay away from? Check out Adam’s Summit League Basketball betting preview.
The 2021-22 college basketball season tips off on Tuesday, November 9th, and Adam Trigger wants to introduce himself with a big discount! For a limited time, you can get the opening seven days of the college hoops season for ONLY $39, giving you access to ANY college basketball selections played during opening week, including ANY 5% Best Bets on the hardwood! Stay on top of the latest College Basketball updates direct from Las Vegas!
Summit League Basketball Betting Preview
My work is finally done out west and I’ll start my trip across the country with the Summit League, another one of my favorite mid-major conferences. South Dakota State and North Dakota State will be in the mix as they always are but one of the darlings of last year’s NCAA Tournament, Oral Roberts, will have themselves in the mix as well. Finding the team or teams that can hang with those three will be where the value is, one of those teams I was already high on last season and that’s where I’ll start my Summit League Basketball preview.
Summit League Basketball ‘BET ON’ Team
UMKC Roos – I hopped on the UMKC bandwagon toward the end of last season and the Roos did not disappoint as Kansas City was a cover machine down the stretch last year. Kansas City covered back to back games against North Dakota State, the latter of which was an upset win that sparked a five game winning streak for Kansas City. UMKC also had wins at North Dakota and Oral Roberts and lost at Kansas State 62-58 so there were a ton of positive results for the Roos despite an overall losing record last season. Kansas City lost a hard fought game to North Dakota State in the Summit League tournament but covered the number to cash a ticket for us, the Roos landed a big time transfer in Evan Gilyard from New Mexico State and I think he’s the missing link that will make Kansas City a dark horse in the Summit League.
Let’s start by getting to know Evan Gilyard, in 2018 he averaged 13.6 points per game in Conference USA for UTEP but decided to leave El Paso for a better program in neighboring New Mexico State. Gilyard didn’t catch on in Las Cruces (not to mention last season was an unmitigated disaster for New Mexico State athletics) and it’s UMKC’s gain as he decided to transfer to Kansas City for his “super senior” season. Gilyard will be a more than serviceable replacement for Brandon McKissic and he’s a great defender which is a prerequisite to play on this UMKC team. Billy Donlon is an excellent defensive coach, there’s no question UMKC will be outstanding defensively as they were last season but this year UMKC has a starting five where everyone can score. Josiah Allick led UMKC with 15 points per game last season, he will have to play in the post because UMKC does lack size but he’s someone capable of playing all over the floor. UMKC probably won’t finish ahead of NDSU, SDSU or Oral Roberts but they will be sizeable underdogs in any of those matchups. It’s possible UMKC is the “best of the rest”, the Roos defense will have them in every game and this team will be undervalued and excellent against the number.
Summit League Basketball ‘BET AGAINST’ Team
North Dakota Fighting Hawks – I don’t think there’s anyone out there making a case for North Dakota in the Summit League but this team tends to get overrated thanks to having one of the bigger fan bases in the conference and I see the Fighting Hawks finishing near the bottom of the Summit this season. North Dakota doesn’t return a single player that averaged double figures for the Fighting Hawks last season and the entire bench is make up of a couple JUCO transfers and freshmen.
Filip Rebraca, the best player from last year’s team, is gone and it looks like the best scorer on this North Dakota roster is transfer Brendan Howard who averaged 20.3 points per game at the Division 2 level last season. North Dakota head coach Paul Sather loves Howard and is high on his JUCO transfers but Sather has a losing record in each of his first two seasons at North Dakota and on paper this is the weakest team he’s had to date in Grand Forks. This is Sather’s first job in Division 1 so it’s possible he’s just outclassed coaching at this level. Sather’s North Dakota teams have been strong defensively but Rebraca was his best interior defender and I’m just not seeing where the scoring comes from on this Fighting Hawks team. If Sather can turn THIS group into a winning team I’ll tip my cap but I simply don’t see it and I expect North Dakota to be slightly overvalued because of the name recognition and a profitable fade this season.
Summit League Basketball Notes
I don’t have a third team I feel strongly about bet on/bet against in this conference so I’ll finish up this preview with some general thoughts. Of the clear Top 3 (South Dakota State, North Dakota State and Oral Roberts) I expect North Dakota State to be the most undervalued. South Dakota State is the odds on favorite to win the league while Oral Roberts is going to be the trendy pick after beating Ohio State and Florida on their way to the Sweet 16 last season. North Dakota State has virtually everyone back and was one possession away from stealing Oral Roberts spot in the Big Dance. North Dakota State is my pick to win this league, whether they are value against the number is yet to be determined but I’d imagine the Bison will be value against SDSU and Oral Roberts.
I was close to making Oral Roberts a second “bet against” team but Max Abmas is the best player in this conference and I still think Oral Roberts will be really good this year. With that being said, Oral Roberts struggled defensively during the regular season last year and if the Golden Eagles will definitely be a good fade against the number. Outside the Top 3 in this conference (and an undervalued Kansas City team that I think will make some noise) the rest of the conference just isn’t very good. We might see some good spots to go against Oral Roberts with SDSU, NDSU and Kansas City but outside of those three it’s tough to make a case for anyone else in the Summit League being worthwhile.
Other College Basketball Conference Previews
West Coast Conference Preview
WAC Conference Preview
Big Sky Preview
Mountain West Conference Preview
Pac-12 Conference Preview
Big West Conference Preview
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— Adam Trigger (@TopFlightSI) October 21, 2021
Conference Tournament Betting
The 2021-22 Summit League Basketball Tournament is a long way away, but it’s never too early to sharpen up some of your betting skills. Minty Bets sat down with Marco D’Angelo and Ralph Michaels to discuss some college basketball conference tournament betting tips, and how those games are different than regular season contests.
2021-22 NCAA Basketball National Championship Odds
The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has just released their updated 2021-22 NCAA Basketball National Championship odds, and Gonzaga remains the 6-to-1 favorite, followed by Texas (10-to-1), Kansas (12-to-1) and UCLA (12-to-1). Once the season tips off, WagerTalk’s live odds screen will feature up-to-the-minute betting lines from a variety of offshore and domestic sports books.
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