Arkansas vs Mercer College Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 11/9/2021

The Mercer Bears and the Arkansas Razorbacks meet in college basketball action from Bud Walton Arena on Tuesday night.

The Mercer Bears come into the 2021-22 season looking to build on a pretty good 18-11 season which included an 8-9 record in SoCon play, but don’t let that record fool you as the Bears had some solid wins including a road win over Georgia Tech. The Bears do lose their top player from last year in Ross Cummings, but there’s still some talent in the cupboards as the Bears bring back two double-digit scorers, and maybe the most important two, their starting point guard in Neftali Alvarez who had 13.3 PPG and a team-high 4.2 APG last season and starting center Felipe Haase who had 11.9 PPG and a team-high 7.6 RPG last season. James Glisson is also back after logging 7.6 PPG with high quality shots last season. As a team, Mercer averaged 76.7 PPG on 47.9% shooting from the field, 37.1% from three and 71.8% from the foul line while allowing 71.8 PPG on 43.8% shooting from the field and 31.8% from three last season.

The Arkansas Razorbacks will look to build on one of the more successful seasons in recent memory, finishing at 25-7 overall, including 13-4 in SEC conference play. The Hogs got the #2 seed in the SEC tournament, taking down Missouri in the quarterfinals before a loss to LSU in the semis. The Razorbacks were still given an at-large NCAA tournament bid, given a #3 seed, and took out Colgate, Texas Tech and Oral Roberts before losing to the eventual National Champion Baylor Bears in the Elite Eight. Eric Musselman’s squad lost some significant talent, with Moses Moody going pro while Jalen Tate and Desi Sills are gone, but the Hogs restocked and reloaded, bringing in some of the top transfers in the country, including PG Chris Lykes from Miami who had 15.5 PPG and 5.5 APG last year, Au’Diese Toney from Pitt who had 14.4 PPG and 5.9 RPG and Stanley Umude from South Dakota, who led the Coyotes with 21.5 PPG and 7 RPG last season. The Hogs also bring in Trey Wade from Wichita State and Kamani Johnson from Little Rock while also bringing back JD Notae, who had 12.8 PPG for Arkansas last season in what’s looking like a potentially better team than last year’s for the Razorbacks. As a team, Arkansas averaged 81.4 PPG on 45.1% shooting from the field, 33.2% from three and 74% from the foul line while allowing 70.8 PPG on 41.9% shooting from the field and 33.6% from three last season.

Mercer is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games overall and 12-5-1 ATS in their last 18 games as a road underdog while the under is 7-0 in their last 7 road games. Arkansas is 8-3 ATS in their last 11 home games and 10-4 ATS in their last 14 games overall while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games as a favorite.

I get Arkansas being favored here at home and this is a loaded lineup on paper for Eric Musselman’s team. However, this Mercer team flew under the radar all season long last year and I’m not letting them sneak by again. This is a well coached team that has some pieces and I think that they can hang with Arkansas here. Give me the Bears and the points.