Northern Iowa Panthers vs Drake Bulldogs Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 03/01/26

It is the final day of the Missouri Valley schedule as the Drake Bulldogs host the Northern Iowa Panthers. This conference has been dominated by Belmont, who has a 4-game lead. Everyone else is jammed up and looking for a chance to take down Belmont for the automatic bid next week. Drake does not seem like that team, having lost 8 games in a row in a disastrous season. UNI is doing a bit better, although they are riding a 2-game skid of their own. This game is at Drake, but it is hard to back the Bulldogs in this spot.

Drake ranks outside the top 200 according to both KenPom and Torvik. They have struggled to find an identity all season, something they can really build around. The Bulldogs have stayed close in most games, even during a lengthy losing streak, but morale has to be running low. As for the Panthers, this team plays at a snail’s pace, 364th out of 365 in terms of tempo. But their specialty is that they absolutely do not allow made 3s, and they rebound everything. Their defense overall is 25th, as per KenPom, and it just doesn’t seem like a spot where Drake is likely to succeed. I’ll take the Panthers to cover on the road.

Northern Iowa vs Drake Prediction: Northern Iowa -4 (-115) available at the time of publishing. Playable to -6.

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