#710 ASA PLAY ON 8* South Dakota State -14 over Nebraska Omaha, Saturday at 6:45 PM ET - Both of these teams love to play fast (Omaha 62 nationally in pace / South Dakota St 50th nationally in pace) and that plays right into SDSU’s strength. They are a fantastic offensive team that averages 80 PPG but is fully capable of pushing into the 90’s in this game. That’s because we expect a LOT of possessions and Omaha’s defense is bad. They rank 9th in the Summit in defensive efficiency and they rank 317th nationally in scoring defense giving up 78 PPG. These 2 haven’t played this year but if we look at how the Jackrabbits did offensively vs the lower tier defensive teams in the league, this could get ugly. They faced North Dakota & Western Illinois each twice in conference play and they averaged 88 PPG in those games. Those 2 teams, along with Omaha are the worst defenses in the Summit. SDSU ranks #1 in the conference in offensive efficiency, 2-point FG%, and 3-point FG%. They rank 2nd nationally making over 40% of their 3-pointers and Omaha ranks 336th defensively guarding the arc. We have no doubt they’ll have a huge offensive game. The problem for Omaha is they’ll get plenty of possessions but they are a poor offensive team. That simply gives SDSU more of a chance to pull away to a larger lead. Omaha ranks 315th nationally on offensive efficiency and 308th in eFG%. South Dakota State’s defense ranks 4th in the Summit in efficiency and when facing the other top 3 defenses (UMKC, North Dakota State, and South Dakota), the Mavericks topped 70 points just once in 6 games. To make matters worse, UNO played their final 6 games without their leading scorer Marlin Ruffin and it looks like he’ll miss this game as well. This team won only 3 conference games this season and 2 of them were against Denver who finished 1-13 in the league. We don’t think the Mavs can keep up in this game and unless they make have to get into the upper 70’s or even 80 just to cover this. Lay the points.