#765 ASA PLAY ON Drake +6.5 over Missouri, Thursday at 7:35 PM ET - This is just a flat out bad match up for the Missouri Tigers. They like to play fast and Drake will slow this game to a crawl. The Bulldogs are the slowest tempo team in the entire country averaging a shot every 22 seconds which is the slowest mark (per KenPom) in the last decade. Worse yet, if they miss that shot, their offensive rebounding rate is stellar (17th in the nation), and then the defense has to immediately play another long possession. Missouri is a very poor defensive rebounding team (300th in the country) and their defense isn’t great (9th in the SEC in defensive efficiency and outside the top 100 nationally since Feb 1st). The Tigers struggled down the stretch with a 2-5 record their last 7 games and one of those wins came vs South Carolina who finished 2-16 in the SEC. Drake is in the top 75 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. They shoot the ball very well ranking 21st in FG% and 75th in 3 point FG%. They’ve already shown the can beat the big boys as they topped Vandy (NCAA tourney team) by 11 on a neutral site (outrebounded Vandy by 19) and they also beat a decent Kansas State team on the road. They’ve won 18 of their last 19 games with their only loss coming by 2 points to a good Bradley team. We expect very few possessions in this game which will make it very tough for Tigers to win by margin, if they win at all. Take the points.