T.M. Selection: Loyola Chicago.

I like Loyola to cover the spread against Ohio State in this game on Friday. Loyola has looked great in their games lately, winning 3 games in a row now including their conference tournament which they won most of their games by 10+ points. Loyola looked really good on the defensive end of the court in their conference tournament games. The most they gave up in 1 game was to Drake in the finals when they gave up 58 points but they didn't give up 51+ in either of their other 2 games and that has also been a common theme for them in 5/6 of their previous 6 games. The only time they gave up more than that during that time was in their 1 loss and that was against Northern Iowa in their final game of the regular season, losing the game by 6 points but still putting up 96 themselves. Loyola has looked great on defense and I think that will play a big role in them winning this game but their offense can also get really hot and I think they will get the best of Ohio State here. Ohio State hasn't looked good lately and they were slipping badly to end the year. They crashed and burned out of their 1st game in the conference tournament with a 3 point loss to Penn State and even before that they ended their regular season losing 3/4 games and those losses were to Michigan, Nebraska, and Maryland. None of those teams are really impressive this year and only 1 of those teams from their previous 4 losses even made it to the NCAA tournament here. I think Ohio State has been slipping lately and I don't like how they have looked in their games with all of these bad losses. I think they are going to crash and burn out of this tournament the same way they did in the Big 10 tournament. I like Loyola to cover the spread in this game.

T.M. Prediction: 68-61 Loyola.