10* James Madison (4:00 ET): Both of these Colonial teams got off to respectable starts to the season, but after dealing with multiple cancellations because of COVID-19, conference play has been a surprising struggle. James Madison is a team I’ve won with before; I took them as a slight favorite when they crushed Northeastern 89-66 earlier this month. But since that win, the Dukes are 0-3 ATS including an ugly loss on the road to Elon and a loss at the buzzer to UNC Wilmington on Thursday. Between them and Charleston, I think JMU is the more likely team to bounce back on Saturday.

Charleston is 0-4 ATS in CAA play, winning only one game straight up. That win was over the Elon team that blew JMU out. But the difference is Charleston got Elon at home. On Thursday, Charleston lost 74-67 to Towson as they could only score 24 points in the first half, a season-low for the team. Now 1-6 ATS in the L7 games overall, the Cougars are playing their second road game in three days, a scenario they’ve yet to face this season. On the road, this team is shooting just 40.4%.

The loss suffered by James Madison on Thursday was just their second at home all season. This is a team my power ratings have felt has been underrated for awhile; they beat Virginia here at home! For the year, JMU is averaging 80.7 PPG at home while giving up only 61.6. They are shooting 50.5% from the field here (38.5% from three) while allowing just 39.3% overall shooting (27.9% from three). At the end of the day, I just can’t see the Dukes dropping a three straight game as chalk. 10* James Madison