Free Pick | Thursday | NCAA | Dec. 8

Nelly’s has turned in a terrific start to the basketball season including four straight winning weeks to start the college basketball season. Join us for the rest of December selections or consider a full season offer.

Free Pick Thursday: #871 Marshall +2 over Duquesne 6:00 PM CT

Dan D’Antoni’s Marshall team lost their season opener on the road by one point to new Division I entrant Queens. Since that game Marshall has won seven in a row, though only one win has come on the road. The Thundering Herd have three wins against MAC teams and have as usual posted terrific offensive results in the up-tempo system for D’Antoni, posing efficient interior scoring numbers with a very low turnover rate. Marshall made noise in the 2018 NCAA Tournament and had six straight winning seasons until bottoming out last year. The improvements already this season have been dramatic, most noteworthy on the defensive end. Duquesne is arguably the toughest opponent Marshall has faced this season, but this is a rare pairing for the Herd where they should be the stronger defensive team. Duquesne is also 7-1 but that record also lacks substance with the overall profile getting an unnecessary boost for playing Kentucky and losing by 25. Duquesne has two one-point wins already this season as this could easily be a team closer to .500 and the Dukes have very little size and have turned over the roster significantly from last season’s 6-24 squad. Kevin Dambrot deserves credit for leading the Dukes already to more wins than last season, but it doesn’t appear to be a sustainable pace and this should be a favorable pairing for Marshall’s offense to continue to score with ease on high percentage interior looks.

Get 2-for-1 from Nelly’s tonight on the basketball schedule: