Fairleigh Dickinson vs. Prairie View A&M Prediction: March Madness First Four Odds
The winner of this game surely gets blown out on Thursday by West Region No. 1 Gonzaga. Fairleigh Dickinson and Prairie View A&M last played one another in November 2012, an 84-70 FDU victory.
Fairleigh Dickinson (16)vs. Prairie View A&M (16): NCAA Tournament Point Spread and Betting
The Knights were regular-season co-champions in the Northeastern Conference at 12-6 in conference play and beat the other champion, St. Francis (Pa). 85-76 in the conference tournament title game behind 21 points from Darnell Edge and 20 from Kaleb Bishop and Jahlil Jenkins. FDU played just one major conference opponent this season, losing 90-55 at Rutgers to tip off the season.
The Panthers were SWAC regular-season champions at 17-1 – their only loss since the calendar flipped to 2019 was 95-90 at Texas Southern. That’s the school Prairie View A&M beat in the SWAC Tournament title game 92-86 behind 17 points from both Gary Blackston and Dennis Jones. Prairie View A&M was an ugly 2-11 in non-conference play but played all but one of those games on the road. They lost at Power 5 schools Baylor by 11 and Georgia Tech by 11.
Fairleigh Dickinson Knights
FDU is in the NCAA Tournament for the second time since 2016 and sixth in program history. The Knights have yet to win a game in the Big Dance. Their best player is Edge, a senior guard who averages 16.4 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists. He was named first-team All-NEC and led the conference and is among the best in the nation at 46.9 percent shooting from deep. That’s what the Knights do well overall, ranking No. 5 nationally in hitting 40.4 percent from behind the arc.
Prairie View A&M Panthers
Prairie View A&M won a regular-season and conference tournament title for the first time in the same season in school history. The school’s only other NCAA Tournament berth was in 1998 when it was destroyed by Kansas in the first round. Guard Dennis Jones was named the SWAC Defensive Player of the Year and led the conference in steals at 2.1 per game – the Panthers led the conference overall in that statistic. Both Blackston (15.2 ppg, 7.0 rpg) and Devonte Patterson (13.3 ppg, 4.9 rpg) were named first-team All-SWAC.
