The South Florida Bulls travel to Chicago on Saturday for a non-conference game against the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers. Loyola looked great to start the year, starting a perfect 7-0; The Bulls are 5-3 with losses to Florida, Charleston and Middle Tennessee State. This should be one of the best mid-major matches of the day and I expect Loyola to take care of business. The spread is currently Loyola -9 and my best bet is that the Ramblers win and cover.

Loyola was great on defense and should make it very difficult for South Florida to consistently score points in the basketball. The Ramblers rank 29th nationally in opponents’ points per game with 64 points and have caused teams to score fewer than 60 points three times this year. According to KenPom, Loyola’s defense ranks 22nd in effective field goal percentage and 25th in 2-point percentage, while South Florida’s offense is outside the top 100 in that category. The Bulls are just 1-7 this season and I don’t think that number will improve this season.

South Florida vs. Loyola-Chicago Prediction: Loyola-Chicago -9 (-110) available at time of publication. Playable to -10.

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