March Madness will tip this year with a clash of No. 16 seeds at the First Four in Dayton, and we have a free NCAA basketball pick for the contest between the Texas A&M-CC Islanders and Texas Southern Tigers.
Texas A&M-CC Islanders vs. Texas Southern Tigers
Tuesday, March 15, 2022 – 06:40 PM EDT at UD Arena
Their campuses are a little more than 200 miles apart, but Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Texas Southern are traveling more than six times that distance to get things rolling at the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Both teams will be immediately returning to the Lone Star State, with either the Islanders or the Tigers stopping in Ft. Worth to take on No. 1 seed Kansas in the first round of the Midwest Region.
But then, these are indeed crazy times we’re living in, and this year’s tournament should reflect that with some crazy NCAAB scores all over the brackets. Automatic qualifiers from the Southland and SWAC, respectively, Texas A&M-CC and Texas Southern get the honors of beginning it all.
Islanders Cover 7 of Last 8
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs during the madness, then you must be doing something right. Not sure Rudyard Kipling was talking about sports betting when he wrote that, but in case he was, Texas Southern opened as 3-point chalk before moving to -3½ at most shops, and 135-135½ is the scoreboard target.
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Steve Lutz brings his A&M-CC crew to Ohio after already going through some crazy times at the Southland Conference Tournament. The Islanders entered the event as the No. 4 seed following a level 7-7 conference record and earned the AQ prize for the NCAA Tournament by taking out No. 5 seed Houston Baptist, No. 1 Nicholls State, and No. 2 Southeastern Louisiana.
In the championship contest against SE Louisiana, the Islanders were getting 2 points at top-rated sportsbooks and pulled off their 20th cover of the season with the 73-55 decision. A&M-Corpus Christi trailed by 10 early on but turned that around ultimately by outscoring the Lions 36-16 in the paint and winning the glass battle 37-25.
Isaac Mushila is a big part of that inside game despite being more of a small forward at 6-6. The junior leads the Islanders in scoring (13.5 ppg) and (9.5 rpg) rebounding and recorded 13 double-doubles on the season.
Tigers Have Covered 3 of Last 4 Tourney Tilts
While Lutz is taking the Islanders to just their second NCAA Tournament in his first season, Johnny Jones and the Tigers are starting to make a habit of being part of the madness. This is TSU’s second consecutive trip to the tournament, and the sixth invite to the last eight dances, doing so this time as the No. 2 seed in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
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Texas Southern destroyed SWAC No. 1 seed Alcorn State in the championship last Saturday in Birmingham where the Tigers closed as 4-point favorites at GT Bets. It was a 3-point game with 12 minutes to go when Texas Southern hit the jets on the way to an 87-62 final.
John Walker III came off the bench to lead five Tigers in double figures with 17 points. Texas Southern shot better than 55% (34-61) for the game and frustrated the Braves who managed to sink just 17-of-60 (28.3%) from the field. In the process, the Tigers avenged two close losses to Alcorn State during the regular season.
Islanders 2-1 in Series with TSU 2-1
We still have to think of the A&M-Corpus Christi program as being in its infancy after first taking up basketball in 1999. In that short time, the Islanders and Tigers have played three times, and the younger A&M-CC program won two of the games. Texas Southern won the most recent matchup in Corpus Christi, a 72-64 final in November 2007.
This will be the first time the Islanders and Tigers play with official college basketball odds for their contest, and if experience at the NCAA Tournament counts, Texas Southern clearly has the edge. The Tigers have won their last two First Four appearances, one of them last season against Mount St. Mary’s before falling to No. 1 seed Michigan. I’ll play the experience.
NCAAB Pick: Texas Southern -3½ (-108) at Heritage Sports (visit our Heritage Sports 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.
