5-1 last night. Syracuse shot the ball very well. Much better than expected. Great slate of games tonight, and not even the obvious ones in Chicago.
Florida/Florida St Under 166.5
This number has come up from 164.5 at open, so you may want to wait until game time and see if it goes any higher. In this game last year, the Gators defend held the Noles to 34% shooting from the field. When you have a monster frontcourt like the like UF does, it forces teams to take lots of shoots with lesser probability of going in. The Noles took 34 3 pointers in that game and only made 9 of them. That total was set at 180.5 and ended at 154. These two teams haven't combined to go over this number in their last 10 match ups. Rivalry games tend to be more defensive oriented, and Todd Golden will take away what the Noles want to do, and make every 3 a difficult one.
Presbyterian Blue Hose +19.5
This Hose team starts 5 guys that played on this team last year. Nearly unheard of this day in age. So experience is on our side, along with some other things. NC St is coached by first year head coach Justin Gainey, and he has a roster full of new faces that are still meshing. They have wins over Campbell by 19, and ETSU by 14, so nothing to get too excited about. I think the Hose guards, who are upperclassmen, can take advantage of the young guards of the Pack, and they have the length to not get dominated inside. 20 seems too much to ask.
La Salle Explorers +21.5
Nova came back from Italy and beat Holy Cross by 29. Holy Cross is rated 361st in KenPom. La Salle is 181st. This is a Philly Big 5 game, where ANYTHING can happen. But villanova has decided to not play in the Big 5 games anymore. Kevin Willard came out and said something along the lines of, why would we go play La Salle in front of 400 people. I'm willing to bet that clip was played over and over in the Explorers locker room over the last few days. This game means nothing to Nova, and everything to La Salle.
Maine/Rhode Island Under 140.5
Chris Markwood is a defensive coach, and like to press, but more to slow teams down and make them start their offense later in the shot clock, not to turn the ball over. He's had back to back defensive POY in his conference, and he's probably going to get a third in a row with Cooper Flaggs twin brother Ace. They have four guys that play a lot of mins at 6'6" or bigger. The length gives the defense the ability to play the way they do. The Rams aren't going to be in any hurry to get the ball up the floor, and rebound well to limit the Bears from any second chance opportunities.
Winthrop/Kennesaw St Over 170.5
You're not going to see a much faster paced game all year than this one. While still very early, both teams are in the top 31 as far as tempo goes. Kennesaw has played one DI game and it was vs Austin Peay who had yet to play a DI game at the time, so probably caught them a little rusty, which has inflated their defensive numbers a little bit I think. Winthrop doesn't pay any attention to the defensive side of the ball, they just want to outscore you. They yet to do it, being 0-2, but both of their games have gotten over 180. They rank 350/365 teams in defensive efficiency. It's going to be an entertaining watch if nothing else.
BOL STL
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