Posted:
#1
2017 Record: 3-6
Tonight we do what we've never done before: We take both Temple Owl MEN and WOMEN!!
First the men:
Whammy #1 (Men)
Temple -2 over UCF
This is the classic bettor "Jump off the Temple bandwagon" game.
They lost outright to the woeful ECU Pirates and then when the world came back and expected them to handle UCONN +2, they lead the entire game handily, collapsed, and gave it up at the buzzer to lose by 1.
Now they give an unremarkable UCF another +2 and the square and sharp alike get skittish. Don't run the other way. Take the Owls in statement game against solid but underwhelming competition they need to beat convincingly to have confidence going into the conference tournament.
Whammy #2 (Women)
Temple +27.5 over UConn.
There is one reason for this play. Her name is Kia Nurse. She is injured and will not play in her second straight game. Here is how the local Connecticut rag described her:
Nurse is UConn's best defensive guard. She also averages 12.8 points and leads UConn in three-point percentage (42.2 percent) and free-throw percentage (85.7 percent).
So she is missed at both ends of the court.
"When the season started, we had a kid who started on the Olympic team for Canada and she started for us for two years and nobody thought we were the best team in the country," Auriemma said. "Now, you take her out of the lineup and you look at our backcourt and you go, 'hmm.'
"Nobody had to tell us how important Kia is to what we do offensively and defensively. The sense of maturity that she brings for the most part and the experience that she brings and it's not like we're taking her out of the lineup and we're replacing her with another senior who's been around the program for four years. We're replacing her with a freshman."
What has happened since she has been out?
She started the South Carolina game two games ago but left in the first half. The 16.5 pt favorite Huskies did not cover and won by 11.
Vs. Tulane last game, a team Uconn is LIGHT YEARS ahead of, they won after Tulane missed a 3 at the buzzer 63-60. Uconn was a whopping 27.5 favorite like this game.
How remarkable are those wins when it comes to the spread?
The past two games make up TWO of the 4 CLOSEST WINS IN 101 STRAIGHT VICTORIES.
So what do the books do? They dole out another 27.5 to the Owls like its business as usual. So much room for error here backing the Owls who will look, like Tulane and South Carolina did, to exploit Nurse's absence.
No whammies. No whammies. STOP! Michael Larsen lives!!!
0
4 points early....
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