Free March Madness Picks Green Bay Phoenix at Youngstown State Penguins

The sixth-seeded Youngstown State Penguins will welcome the seventh-seeded Green Bay Phoenix at the Beeghly Center this evening in first-round action of the 2012 Horizon League Tournament.

Green Bay ended its campaign on a high note by winning five in a row and eight of its last 10 games overall. The hot streak lifted the Phoenix to a winning record (15-14) and a 10-8 conference mark. They lost home-court advantage in this matchup by losing the tie-breaker to Youngstown State, which is quite unfortunate for the Phoenix because they have only won 3 games out of 15 road games this season.

Green Bay Phoenix (15-14) at Youngstown State Penguins (15-14)

When: Tuesday, February 28th, 7:05 PM

Where: Beeghly Center, Youngstown, Ohio

The Penguins are -3 on the NCAA odds. Don't forget to shop for lines in different online sports books out there and especially don't forget to read this free March madness picks in order to come up with your own opinion about the game.

Both teams have the exact same records but since the teams split the season series this year, YSU earned the higher seed by winning the tie-breaker, which in this scenario was its record against Detroit, which it went 1-1 against, while Green Bay lost both of its matchups to the Titans.

The Penguins have backed their way into this position however by losing three of their last four games.

Green Bay has 24-7 advantage over YSU in the all-time series, which includes wins in six of the last seven matchups.

On the period of the running success, Phoenix has been able to win in a variety of different ways, including low-scoring affairs against Wright State (53-48) and Eastern Michigan (54-49), as well as in hot-shooting affairs like against Butler (80-68). They managed to stay afloat even if they have been allowing more points at 65.7 ppg than they actually score at 64.7 ppg.

The Youngstown State has almost the same makeup as Green Bay at the defensive end of the court (65.3 ppg), but it possesses a slightly better scoring attack, putting up third-most points per game in the Horizon League at 67 ppg. They managed to shoot 46 percent during their regular season finale with Detroit from the field and draining 11 three-pointers. This team have Kendrick Perry who is the league's top scorer with 16.8 ppg and 3.9 apg.

Free March Madness Picks: Youngstown State 72, Green Bay 69