Marshall vs South Alabama Prediction 2/13/25 College Basketball Picks

The Marshall Thundering Herd and the South Alabama Jaguars meet Thursday in college basketball action from Mitchell Center. Here’s a Marshall vs South Alabama prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Marshall vs South Alabama pick. We will examine: 

The Marshall Thundering Herd’s recent form and player performance

The South Alabama Jaguars’ recent form and player performance 

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Marshall Thundering Herd

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the South Alabama Jaguars

Recent betting trends in games played between Marshall and South Alabama

A summary that ties it all together and produces a favorable betting outcome for the Marshall vs South Alabama game

Marshall Thundering Herd Betting Preview

Marshall was sitting at .500 overall as recently as January 4, but since then they’ve been pretty solid record-wise. During their initial 8-8 run through the first 16 outings of the season, the Thundering Herd lost to Toledo, Purdue, Western Kentucky, UNC Wilmington, Wright State, Southern Miss, Elon, and Troy. It’s been a much-improved 7-2 stretch for the Herd since then. In that time Marshall dispatched James Madison, Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina, and Arkansas State in succession with losses to James Madison and Georgia State mixed in. Overall so far that gives the Thundering Herd a 15-10 overall record through their first 25 games of the 2024-25 season. 

In the Arkansas State home matchup last Wednesday, Marshall came into the second half with a 35-29 deficit. The Thundering Herd woke up after that, however, hitting a 48-37 run for a comeback win 77-72 in the end. Leading the team in scoring was Nate Martin with 18 points, 14 rebounds, and two assists for a double-double. Dezayne Mingo managed to double up as well with his 14 points, 10 assists, and five rebounds in 38 minutes of work. 

South Alabama Jaguars Betting Preview

Over on the South Alabama side, they got through their first 19 games with a nice run but they’ve been shaky record-wise lately. The Jaguars went 7-4 over their first 11 outings, beating Nicholls State, Mercer, Spring Hill, Incarnate Word, Alcorn State, Jacksonville State, and East Texas A&M in that time. a 7-1 stretch came next with a lone loss to Old Dominion among wins over James Madison, Mobile, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Arkansas State, Southern Miss, and Troy. Since then it’s been a shaky 2-4 stretch for the Jaguars, though. The wins in that time were over Louisiana and Coastal Carolina. Otherwise, it was losses to Troy, LA Monroe (twice), and Akron, giving South Alabama a total record of 16-9 through 25 games this season. 

Matched up against Akron on Saturday, the Jaguars were in the locker room down by six points. South Alabama didn’t end up getting any closer on a 44-37 run from there and lost the game 80-67 in the end. Leading the team in scoring was Barry Dunning, who notched a double-double of 22 points with 12 rebounds and one assist. Elijah Ormiston added 15 points with one rebound, and Judah Brown had 10 points with five boards off the bench. 

Why the South Alabama Jaguars will win

• South Alabama has won seven of its last eight home night games against the Sun Belt Conference.
• Marshall has lost each of its last three away games when playing with a rest advantage.
• Marshall has lost the first half in seven of its last eight road games.

Why the Marshall Thundering Herd will win

• Marshall has won five of its last six games against the Sun Belt Conference.

Marshall vs South Alabama Prediction 

I’ll stick with South Alabama. You could probably make a case either way, though. The Jaguars also need a good bounce-back effort here following their loss to Akron over the weekend. South Alabama shot pretty well in that one (45.3 percent) but also got outmuscled on the boards 35-31 and had 13 turnovers for 18 Zips points. The Jaguars haven’t been scoring well lately either; they’ve got fewer than 68 points in six of their last seven games (a 3-4 run). 

As for Marshall, they’ve got 71 or more points in five of the six games during this current 5-1 stretch. The Herd are going to be a tricky matchup for the Jaguars. That said, if South Alabama can keep the mistakes in check I could see them powering one out here.