The Missouri Tigers will travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota to face the Minnesota Golden Gophers in an SEC vs Big Ten matchup on Thursday night at the Williams Arena with the game scheduled to start at 9:00 PM ET and will air on the Big Ten Network. 

Missouri finished the 2022-23 college basketball season with a record of 25-10 which included a record of 11-7 in the SEC which led to a tie with the Tennessee Volunteers and Vanderbilt Commodores for 4^th place in the conference. The Tigers would defeat the Tennessee Volunteers by a score of 76-65 in the 1^st round of the SEC Tournament before losing to Alabama in the 2^nd round of the tournament by a score of 61-72, however, the Tigers would receive an at-large bid to the 2023 NCAA Tournament in which they defeated the Utah State Aggies by a score of 76-65 in the 1^st round before losing to the Princeton Tigers in the 2^nd round by a score of 63-78. This season, the Missouri Tigers have started the year with a record of 2-1 following wins at home against the Arkansas Pine Bluff Golden Lions by a score of 101-79 while failing to cover the 28-point spread as a home favorite and the SIU Edwardsville Cougars by a score of 68-50 while failing to cover the 18.5-point spread as a home favorite while losing at home to the Memphis Tigers by a score of 55-70 while failing to cover the 3-point spread as a home favorite.

The Minnesota Golden Gophers finished last season with the worst record in the Big Ten as they had a record of 9-22 overall and a record of 2-17 in the Big Ten Conference. Minnesota would win in the 1^st round of the Big Ten tournament against the Nebraska Cornhuskers by a score of 78-75 before losing in the 2^nd round of the tournament against the Maryland Terrapins by a score of 54-70. The Golden Gophers would also miss the NCAA tournament for the 4^th consecutive season. This year, the Minnesota Golden Gophers are projected to finish in last place in the Big Ten Conference again, however, they have started the year with a record of 2-0 following an 80-60 win at home against the Bethune Cookman Wildcats while covering the 17-point spread as a home favorite and a win at home against the UTSA Roadrunners by a score of 102-76 while covering the 12-point spread as a home favorite.

BookMaker has the Missouri Tigers listed as 2-point favorites on the road against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Thursday night. This will be the first time in the history of these two programs that they will face each other in college basketball. The Missouri Tigers are 0-3 ATS overall and 0-3 ATS as a favorite this season while the Minnesota Golden Gophers are 2-0 ATS overall and 2-0 ATS at home on the year.

Missouri has not covered the spread in any of their games this season as they are 0-3 ATS overall while Minnesota has covered the spread in both of their games going 2-0 ATS overall and 2-0 ATS at home. The Golden Gophers have looked like the better team as well to start the season which is why I am taking the points with the Minnesota Golden Gophers when they host the Missouri Tigers on Thursday night.