UMBC vs Albany Prediction 1/23/25 College Basketball Picks

The UMBC Retrievers and the Albany Great Danes meet Thursday in college basketball action from SEFCU Arena. Here’s a UMBC vs Albany prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best UMBC vs Albany pick. We will examine:

The UMBC Retrievers’ recent form and player performance

The Albany Great Danes’ recent form and player performance

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the UMBC Retrievers

Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Albany Great Danes

Recent betting trends in games played between UMBC and Albany

A summary that ties it all together and produces a favorable betting outcome for the UMBC vs Albany game

UMBC Retrievers Betting Preview

It’s been quite the uneven season for UMBC so far. The Retrievers have struggled with the .500 mark most of the way, and lately, they’ve been losing the battle. UMBC kicked things off on a fairly competent 7-5 run, taking out Penn State-York, Valley Forge, Coppin State, Howard, Morgan State, Towson, and Cairn University along the way. The losses otherwise were versus Penn State, Saint Peter’s, Hampton, Boston U, and Georgetown. Since then it’s been a rough 2-5 run for the Retrievers. Those wins came over American U and NJIT. Otherwise, it was defeats courtesy of Georgia Tech, Marist, Binghamton, New Hampshire, and Maine, resulting in a 9-10 overall record through the first 19 outings of the year for UMBC.

In the Maine game over the weekend, the Retrievers came out of the locker room sporting a 45-27 deficit. UMBC has outscored the rest of the way 42-35, failing to gain any ground in an eventual 87-62 defeat. The Retrievers had only one scorer in double-digits: Marcus Banks with 13 points, two rebounds, one assist, and one steal. Bryce Johnson chipped in eight points with six rebounds and three assists in 27 minutes of work on the court, though.

Albany Great Danes Betting Preview

Over on the Great Danes’ side, they got off to a great start through their first half-dozen games. Albany has since fallen on tough times though, retreating back to .500 on the year. The Danes lost to Army in their opener, then beat SUNY-Oneonta, Dartmouth, Siena, Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, and Kansas City in the next five. A 4-7 stretch came next, featuring wins over Columbia, Sacred Heart, Stony Brook, and New Hampshire alongside losses to American U, Georgetown, Boston U, Syracuse, Drexel, Fordham, and UMass Lowell. Since then it’s been a pair of losses to Maine and Bryant before a win over Binghamton, giving the Danes a .500 record through 20 games so far this year.

Matched up against Binghamton on Saturday, the Great Danes came out of halftime looking up at a 33-32 edge on the scoreboard. Albany kept it up in the second with a 37-33 run for a 70-65 victory in the end. Leading scorer Byron Joshua put up 15 points with five rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Kheni Briggs added 13 points with four rebounds and two steals off the bench, while Amir Lindsey had 12 bench points with two steals and two assists in 20 minutes.

Why the UAlbany Great Danes will win

• UMBC has lost five of its last six games against Conference opponents.
• The home team has won three of the last four games between UMBC and UAlbany.

Why the UMBC Retrievers will win

• UMBC has won each of its last five games at Broadview Center against non-AP-ranked opponents.
• UAlbany has lost 15 of its last 18 night games against Conference opponents at Broadview Center.
• UMBC has won the first half in four of its last five road night games against Conference opponents.

UMBC vs Albany Prediction

I’m going to stay with Albany. The Danes posted a much-needed win over a struggling Binghamton team in their last game, thanks mostly to a 32-29 rebounding edge and 21 points off 17 Binghamton turnovers. Albany had been below 70 points in three of the previous four games, so hitting that threshold on Thursday should be a focus.

As for UMBC, they were quite permissive on defense in their loss to Maine, surrendering 56.3 percent shooting while notching 19 turnovers for a whopping 28 Black Bears points. The Retrievers have given up 79 or more points in three of the last four games (all three were losses), so Albany should have plenty of room to score in this one—if the Danes can take advantage, that is.