Wednesday Discussion

[Franchise]

A couple that interest me.

Duke/Miami - This line seems a little light, as if it is begging for Duke action. Duke has been dominating teams and been pretty good on the road. So why are they laying 7' to a 3-8 team that has been decent at home (good record, not too many good teams)? I would have thought the action would be split around 10.

Temple/St Bonnies - I am leaning toward going with Temple -6'. Bonnies have some positives but just can't match up with Temple. I expect Temple to continue their strong play from the weekend after a little slip up the week before. Bonnies were strangled on offense by a good defensive team in Richmond and I see more of the same here.

The Devan Downey's/Arkansas - Arkansas should rebound after their turd they dropped in the 2H at Bama against the road weak Devan Downey's. But I would prefer not to see the reverse line movement on arkansas if that's where popular opinion falls.

Texas/Missou - Texas winning one game doesn't get me back on their train. I think their young guards will struggle with the pressure and the pace should affect any time that Pittman sees on the court.

URI/SLU - Can the fighting Majerus's do it again? It will be interesting to see how they respond to playing the top of the conference every game. If they get any more of the top teams this will be the last one. URI is in the middle of their typical late season fade.

Anyone else have anything that interests them?

[Daws1089]

I think the Duke line is right. Duke hasn't been that good on the road. Comparing this to other games where duke was on the road and favored similarly they are 0-2. They lost @GT as 7 pts favs and struggled to put BC away as 8 pt favs. MIA is not very good, but anymore pts and I'd have to be considering MIA. Duke off of the blowout win to MD doesn't help them either.

[Nigel Tufnel]

That URI/SLU game is really interesting. The A10 from here on out is going to be crazy. URI figures out a way to win @ UD Arena, so you know they can win @ SLU....but SLU is playing well and is tough at home. I think the value lays in SLU @ home or no bet at all.

St. Joe getting 17.5 seems like a lot to me....even though St. Joe is not good, they have historically played X closely. I could see a backdoor cover here by the Hawks. While X is @ the Cintas, this is a sandwich game between games @ Florida last week and @ Charlotte this weekend. Wouldn't be surprised if St. Joe keeps this game in the 10-15 range.

GL!!

[Franchise]

The thing with SLU is last week was the first time I have seen them this year. And while their results look as if they should be able to take down the Rams, they will be significantly outclassed physically in this game. URI will be able to break down their defense. One of the keys for SLU has been there ability to not let teams make 3's and Dayton was something like 1-13. But they had plenty of wide open looks and didn't knock them down so I wouldn't really credit the defense for that. And having seen URI a few times I think they match up really well with the type of players that SLU wants to put on the court. Their length should bother the shooters and unless SLU has someone catch fire from the 3 pt line I don't see them scoring enough to keep up. SLU is attempting to run the gauntlet of the top of the league right now and I think their physical limitations will get exposed. If Dayton hadn't collapsed in the second half last week the line would be higher. I think SLU can keep games within 10 pts due to their pace and ability to shoot 3's but I think asking for W's down the stretch might be too much.

[FearTheRaven]

Take the Terps-Wolfpack Over

[TheBeholdah]

UTAH STATE will likely be my only play tonight. i think theyre gonna scrape la tech, should be the exact opposite of when they last played only with less scoring. la tech beat them 82-60 ealier in season and since then utah st has won 10 str8, with 8 of those 10 wins by double digits and all the home games double digit wins. la tech has been very mediocre in this span, most recently jsut sneaking by an awful hawaii team at home.

utah st wasnt playing well when they met last and la tech played the game at their tempo. this time around i expect utah st to control the tempo. they'll frustrate the bulldogs with the slow tempo and execute better in the half court offense (top 10 offensive efficiency). the spectrum is one of the best home court advantages in the game and once they get la tech on the ropes it'll be really hard for la tech to avoid a revenge beatdown.