#705 ASA PLAY ON 8* Nicholls State +15.5 over SMU, Wednesday at 8 PM ET - Almost no way SMU brings their “A” game here. They were among the most devasted teams to be left out of the Big Dance. Here are some quotes from SMU coach Jankovich which speaks volumes. "I saw a group of guys completely devastated and heartbroken. In my eyes, they're 100% an NCAA tournament team. I hope they don't let what a small committee of others believes change how they feel about themselves.” Now to have to play in a meaningless (to them) game will be very tough. Nicholls State is just happy to still be playing. They are veteran team with 5 senior starters that was the top team all season long in the Southern Conference. They won the regular season title but were upset by Texas A&M CC in the conference tourney. The Colonels played some tough competition quite well before entering their conference slate. They lost by 3 @ Wisconsin, by 14 @ Purdue, and by 13 @ TCU. They also beat a very solid Northern Iowa team on the road. They are a decent shooting team (69th nationally in eFG%) and they have pretty good size for a low major team and won’t get dominated on the boards vs a poor rebounding SMU team. NSU had a winning 10-9 SU record on the road this season. This line is a bit high in our opinion even not taking the emotional letdown in mind here. 2 teams in the AAC that were similarly rated to Nicholls State were Tulsa and USF. SMU was favored by 10.5 and 14.5 at home in those games and won both of those games by 14. Too many points to begin with and factoring in the situation we like Nicholls State.