The San Jose State Spartans hired Tim Miles as head coach, making a big splash that was somewhat unexpected. Miles is a former high major coach just like Pitino at New Mexico. Let’s see the NCAAB odds.
Thursday, November 11, 2021 – 10:00 PM EST at Event Center Arena
Just like New Mexico, San Jose State really went hard on the transfer portal grabbing players from South Carolina, Ole Miss, Ohio State, and Arizona. There are only three key returners for San Jose State as Richard Washington (who scored nearly 20 points per game) is suspended by the NCAA and can’t play his final season at this time. He’s still fighting this but won’t play in this one for San Jose State.
Despite all that, San Jose State looks fantastic on paper. When Miles spoke to the media, he had this to say. “We’ll collect enough talent to be competitive in the Mountain West and not be a bottom third team at least in year one.” On offense, San Jose State is going to shoot a lot of threes. At home, you’d think that these balls would go down. He acknowledged his love for threes in the same presser.
“Being three-point heavy with more attempts than ever, I’d like to think our game is more than just defending the three’s and making the three’s, but those are critical environments.” So now San Jose State will take on one of the worst teams at defending the three in Cal State Fullerton.
The Titans allowed nearly 40 percent of threes from opponents last year and already allowed over 33 percent in the first game of the season against Santa Clara. At San Jose State, there are some high-risk, high-reward players on the roster. It’s completely different than last year’s team and it’s looking fantastic on paper.
On the other hand, Cal State Fullerton only lost three players from a brutal roster last year. This team struggled to play many games due to COVID and never got in a rhythm. They’ve added a couple of transfers from the portal but only one is ready to make an impact currently in EJ Anosike.
Dante and Tray Maddox Jr. will be the two guys scoring the points for Fullerton. They’ve got heavy guard play but nothing much in the frontcourt. The tallest player that will play is 6’8” for the Titans in Vincent Lee. He is terrific on the glass but he’ll have trouble going up against former Ole Miss product Shon Robinson (6-11) and former Ohio State recruit, Ibrahima Diallo (6-10) along with others.
There’s reason to believe that San Jose State can be really good this season. Take everything you learned about this team last year and throw it away. The Mountain West is legitimately stacked this year.
If San Jose State is in the middle of the conference, that would be a huge success for Tim Miles. And I think they’ll get there. For my NCAAB picks, give me San Jose State taking the points at +6. Honestly, I have them squeaking out a win, but I always like to play it safe!
NCAAB Pick: San Jose State +6 (-115) with BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.