Utah vs LIU 11/7/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The LIU Sharks and the Utah Utes meet in college basketball action from the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Monday night.

The LIU Sharks come into the 2022-23 season looking to build on a decent 2021-22 campaign, finishing at 16-14 overall, including a 12-6 mark in NEC conference play. The Sharks took out Sacred Heart in the quarterfinals before falling to Wagner in the semifinals, ending their season. It’ll be a tough debut for Rod Strickland who lost pretty much any relevant returning starter after the Sharks parted ways with coach Derek Kellogg last year. Strickland does bring in Maurice Commander (10.5 PPG, 2.3 APG) from UIC to try to offset the losses of guys like Ty Flowers (19.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 3.2 APG), Eral Penn (17.1 PPG, 7.4 RPG) and Isaac Kante (12 PPG, 7.5 RPG).

The Utah Utes will try to bounce back from a disappointing 2021-22 season, finishing at 11-20 overall, including a 4-16 Pac-12 conference record. The Utes were the 11-seed in the conference tournament, but were bounced by Washington in the first round, ending their season. The Utes do lose Both Gach (8.7 PPG, 2.2 APG) and David Jenkins Jr. (8.5 PPG) but bring back top-scorer Brendan Carlson (13.6 PPG, 6 RPG) and Marco Anthony (9.1 PPG, 7 RPG). Rollie Worster and Lazar Stefanovic also return after logging 7.5 PPG apiece last year with Worster adding 4.5 RPG and 3.1 APG.

LIU is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 road games while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 road games. Utah is 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games overall while the over is 5-1 in their last 6 home games.

I get the reasoning for wanting to back LIU In the underdog role, but the Sharks just lost too much top-end talent and Utah should be favored, but they’re not a team known for scoring tons of points either. I think this one is going to end up being a low-scoring muckfest for 40 minutes. There’s much better places to have your money on Monday, but I’ll side with the under here.