It wasn’t always easy, but Troy rose above the rest of the teams in the Sun Belt over the course of this season.
The Trojans were 22-11 overall and 12-6 in league play. That was just one game ahead of six others who were in a tie for second in the conference standings.
Troy kept winning, though, and beat Georgia Southern 77-61 in the Sun Belt Championship. With Scott Cross at head coach, the Trojans earned a No. 13 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will play No. 4-seeded Nebraska.
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With Fred Hoiberg as their coach, the Cornhuskers won their first 20 games of the regular season. They lost six of their last 12 games, though, including against Purdue in the Big Ten quarterfinals.
Nebraska now hopes to capture some of that early-season magic in March Madness.
Nebraska vs. Troy Odds
Troy is a +13.5 college basketball betting odds underdog against Nebraska, with the Over/Under being 137.5 points as of this writing.
The moneyline for Nebraska is -1100, while it’s +650 for Troy.
Nebraska vs. Troy On TV
The matchup between Nebraska and Troy will be televised on truTV. The game will tip off at 12:40 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 19.
The contest is taking place at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Nebraska vs. Troy Prediction
I predict Nebraska will win but Troy will cover the 13.5-point spread. I also project the game will go Under 137.5 total points.
I’m not a huge fan of how Nebraska is playing recently, so I do believe Troy will manage to keep this thing closer than 14 points. But I also believe Nebraska is a flat-out better squad.
The Cornhuskers are tough defensively and force opponents into a lot of mistakes on that end of the floor. They’re 21st in the country in scoring defense (66.2 points per game allowed) and turnover margin (plus-3.2) and are also 22nd in defensive field goal percentage (40.429%).
Led by Victor Valdes (14.8 points and 4.6 assist per game) and Thomas Dowd (14.8 PPG and 10.1 rebounds per game), Troy is pretty solid offensively.
But I anticipate Nebraska will make scoring difficult for the Trojans. And with forwards Pryce Sandfort (17.8 PPG) and Rienk Mast (13.5 PPG) leading the way, I think we’ll see Nebraska playing in the second round.
