Not liking a lot from tonight's card but got one play:
Utah Tech +8.5: Trailblazers coming on with 4 straight wins and have actually looked pretty solid in conference play. They welcome the co-leaders Utah Valley Mavericks tonight and Tech will be looking to continue their renaissance while avenging a 92-76 loss at UV a month ago. UV has been lights out at home but have shown some vulnerabilities on the road where they have lost by 14 and 17 to bottom-half teams Southern Utah and Abilene Christian. Obviously this is a big game for Utah Valley but I think they run into plenty of resistance from the scrappy home team tonight. 0.75 units.
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Not liking a lot from tonight's card but got one play:
Utah Tech +8.5: Trailblazers coming on with 4 straight wins and have actually looked pretty solid in conference play. They welcome the co-leaders Utah Valley Mavericks tonight and Tech will be looking to continue their renaissance while avenging a 92-76 loss at UV a month ago. UV has been lights out at home but have shown some vulnerabilities on the road where they have lost by 14 and 17 to bottom-half teams Southern Utah and Abilene Christian. Obviously this is a big game for Utah Valley but I think they run into plenty of resistance from the scrappy home team tonight. 0.75 units.
Murray State -3.5: Racers have lost 5 of 7 after starting conference play 8-0, and need to stem the tide in a hurry if they are to get back in the hunt for the MVC title as they have fallen 2 games adrift of Belmont and into a tie for second with Bradley. Luckily they play a team that's been even worse, with Indiana State losing 6 of 7 to freefall near the bottom of the standings. Murray State ranks among the top 60 teams in adjusted offensive efficiency, they rebound and shoot free throws well, and I think they have their way with a Sycamores team that struggles mightily to get stops defensively. Murray State is coming off a dreadful 29-point beatdown at home to Northern Iowa and I think that's the wakeup call for them to get back to playing more like they did in the first half of conference play. 0.5 units.
That's definitely it for tonight. Best of luck to everyone on their plays!
Murray State -3.5: Racers have lost 5 of 7 after starting conference play 8-0, and need to stem the tide in a hurry if they are to get back in the hunt for the MVC title as they have fallen 2 games adrift of Belmont and into a tie for second with Bradley. Luckily they play a team that's been even worse, with Indiana State losing 6 of 7 to freefall near the bottom of the standings. Murray State ranks among the top 60 teams in adjusted offensive efficiency, they rebound and shoot free throws well, and I think they have their way with a Sycamores team that struggles mightily to get stops defensively. Murray State is coming off a dreadful 29-point beatdown at home to Northern Iowa and I think that's the wakeup call for them to get back to playing more like they did in the first half of conference play. 0.5 units.
That's definitely it for tonight. Best of luck to everyone on their plays!
Brutal, brutal last-ditch backdoor cover by Indiana State costs me the sweep. Losing plays like that makes you want to take a break from this crap for a while. Great that Utah Tech won outright against Utah Valley and I do end up +0.25 units for the night, but overall very frustrating.
Brutal, brutal last-ditch backdoor cover by Indiana State costs me the sweep. Losing plays like that makes you want to take a break from this crap for a while. Great that Utah Tech won outright against Utah Valley and I do end up +0.25 units for the night, but overall very frustrating.
Getting this one early for tomorrow as I suspect this gets to 10 or so by gametime:
Harvard -8.5: Harvard is tied for first place in the Ivy with Yale at 6-2, with the teams set to meet Saturday at Harvard. The Crimson will look to mark time by beating last-place Brown who are dead and buried with a 1-7 record. The 2 teams met at Brown 2 weeks ago with Harvard cruising to a 69-59 win. Harvard doesn't necessarily have the deepest of rotations but having watched them win at Yale 2 weeks ago, they play terrific defence and has the best starting five in this league, getting huge production from Hinton, Barbour, Batties, Eisendrath and Pigge. While Harvard hosts Brown, Yale will have a bit of a tougher test against a Dartmouth team today that is in the middle of a huge battle for the last 2 berths to the conference tournament at Princeton's gym. Only worry for the Crimson is they're looking past the Brown matchup to the big showdown with Yale, but even with 75 per cent effort, I think they can cover 8.5 against Brown. Looking ahead to Saturday, Harvard did win that first matchup 67-65 and I do think they can take advantage of a Yale team that is not even close to being as good defensively as they were last year. Of course, Yale is one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country, and if they get hot, they are plenty capable of blowing Harvard or anyone else in this league out of the water. Definitely one I'm looking forward to. But as usual there will be too many other games to watch on Saturday lol. At any rate ... 0.75 units on the Crimson -8.5 over the Brown Bears.
Getting this one early for tomorrow as I suspect this gets to 10 or so by gametime:
Harvard -8.5: Harvard is tied for first place in the Ivy with Yale at 6-2, with the teams set to meet Saturday at Harvard. The Crimson will look to mark time by beating last-place Brown who are dead and buried with a 1-7 record. The 2 teams met at Brown 2 weeks ago with Harvard cruising to a 69-59 win. Harvard doesn't necessarily have the deepest of rotations but having watched them win at Yale 2 weeks ago, they play terrific defence and has the best starting five in this league, getting huge production from Hinton, Barbour, Batties, Eisendrath and Pigge. While Harvard hosts Brown, Yale will have a bit of a tougher test against a Dartmouth team today that is in the middle of a huge battle for the last 2 berths to the conference tournament at Princeton's gym. Only worry for the Crimson is they're looking past the Brown matchup to the big showdown with Yale, but even with 75 per cent effort, I think they can cover 8.5 against Brown. Looking ahead to Saturday, Harvard did win that first matchup 67-65 and I do think they can take advantage of a Yale team that is not even close to being as good defensively as they were last year. Of course, Yale is one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country, and if they get hot, they are plenty capable of blowing Harvard or anyone else in this league out of the water. Definitely one I'm looking forward to. But as usual there will be too many other games to watch on Saturday lol. At any rate ... 0.75 units on the Crimson -8.5 over the Brown Bears.
And one more before sleepytime out here on the left coast:
U-Mass Minutemen +13.5: UMass has lost just one game by double-digits all season, and that only by 10, also notable as it was a 69-59 rock fight against Kent State who usually shoots the lights out. UMass came as close to anyone to knocking off Miami-Ohio, dropping an 86-84 thriller in Miami Jan. 27, with their big men like Bettiol and Harkins-Sanford giving the Red Hawks also sorts of problems that night (they also have a terrific 4th year shooting guard in Marcus Banks Jr to balance the attack). I think they can have similar success against the heavily guard-oriented Zips who do much of their damage in transition and with outside shooting. UMass has in fact played a lot of their MAC foes tough on the road, beating Buffalo, losing by 3 at Ohio and a wild 101-100 loss to Bowling Green. They also have some decent non-conf wins over Boston College, Florida St and Harvard. The common denominator is they play all close games and I don't expect that to change tomorrow at Akron. 0.5 units.
And one more before sleepytime out here on the left coast:
U-Mass Minutemen +13.5: UMass has lost just one game by double-digits all season, and that only by 10, also notable as it was a 69-59 rock fight against Kent State who usually shoots the lights out. UMass came as close to anyone to knocking off Miami-Ohio, dropping an 86-84 thriller in Miami Jan. 27, with their big men like Bettiol and Harkins-Sanford giving the Red Hawks also sorts of problems that night (they also have a terrific 4th year shooting guard in Marcus Banks Jr to balance the attack). I think they can have similar success against the heavily guard-oriented Zips who do much of their damage in transition and with outside shooting. UMass has in fact played a lot of their MAC foes tough on the road, beating Buffalo, losing by 3 at Ohio and a wild 101-100 loss to Bowling Green. They also have some decent non-conf wins over Boston College, Florida St and Harvard. The common denominator is they play all close games and I don't expect that to change tomorrow at Akron. 0.5 units.
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