Free Picks: Service Plays for Friday February, 24

Rob Vinciletti

Pennsylvania vs. Dartmouth
Play: Pennsylvania -5.5

Penn has better overall numbers and has won 6 of 7 vs losing teams and 7 of 9 conference games. They are a solid 13-1 with 12 spread wins in the series and now take on a struggling Dartmouth team that has lost 12 of 13 vs winning teams and 11 of 12 with road loss revenge. In games after allowing 60 or less they have lost 6 of 7. As a home dog of 3.5 to +6 they are 1-5. Finally they are -5 when the total is 119 or less. Look for Penn to win and cover in this one.

Ben Burns

Vancouver Canucks @ New Jersey Devils
PICK: New Jersey Devils

The Canucks are playing very well right now. However, they're in a tough spot tonight and they'll be facing another team which is also playing well. Off a huge "shootout" win at Detroit, I expect Vancouver to stumble here.

Last night's game at Detroit was a very big game. For starters, the Canucks and Red Wings are battling for top spot overall. Also, they may well see each other in the playoffs. Additionally, the Canucks were attempting to end Detroit's record-breaking 23-game home winning streak.

As Canucks' goalie Roberto Luongo noted afterwards: "It was an intense game with a playoff atmosphere ..."

Vancouver's Alex Burrows would add: "For us to come in here and play well and show that we can beat them means a lot ..."

Note that not only are the Canucks playing the second of back-to-back games here, they're also playing their third game in four days AND their fifth game in the past seven.

Off such an emotional victory and in such a difficult scheduling spot, a letdown is extremely possible, if not likely. Of course, even if the Canucks are fully focused on the Devils, its not going to be easy to win here.

The Devils, who had the past two days off, have won four straight games. They're 9-2 since the end of January. They're also now a profitable 21-9 (+11.1) in the month of February, the past few seasons.

With the Devils also at 12-6 (+5.9) when playing with two day's rest in between games, lets back the well-rested home team. Consider New Jersey.

Jack Jones

West Virginia PK

The West Virginia Mountaineers are in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament. A win tonight over a quality Marquette team would certainly help their cause. I like their chances of winning on their home floor in this one.

Motivated from an embarrassing road loss at Notre Dame last time out, the Mountaineers will return home hungry tonight. WVU is 17-11 on the season, including 10-4 where they are outscoring opponents by 8.2 points/game.

Head coach Bob Huggins is 17-6 ATS off a road loss as the coach of West Virginia. Huggins is 21-6 ATS off a road loss by 10 points or more in all games he has coached since 1997. Better yet, Huggins is 14-2 ATS after a loss by 15 points or more in all games he has coached since 1997. Needless to say, he'll have his troops ready to go tonight. Bet West Virginia Friday.

Jim Feist

Columbia vs Yale
Pick: Yale

Columbia is not a good rebounding team (6th in the Ivy League) and faces a Yale club that is tops in the Ivy in rebounding and scoring. The Lions are 3-8 ATS in their last 11 Friday games and 2-7 ATS in their last 9 games following an ATS win. Yale has had a fine season but has had 5 days to stew after a blowout loss to rival Harvard, 66-51. They are still 5-1 ATS the last 6 games. The Bulldogs are 13-4 ATS in their last 17 games following a ATS loss and the Lions are 0-6 ATS in the last 6 meetings. Play Yale!

Dave Cokin

Cornell vs Brown
Pick: Cornell

Cornell has been a a terrible road team this season, but they figure to nail down a win here. Brown has been playing shorthanded all season and there just doesn't appear to much in the tank at this point. This is historically a great visit for the Big Red. I'll give the points with Cornell.

David Banks

Iona -8

The Fairfield Stags (17-11, 10-14-1 ATS) will look to put their best foot forward on Friday night when they head to Iona to battle the MAAC leading Gaels (22-6, 11-13-2 ATS); tip-off in New Rochelle, NY is slated for 9:00 ET on ESPNU.

With only 17 wins under its belt heading into Friday nights crucial clash, Fairfield knows a win here would drastically improve its resume for the NCAA Tournament selection committee as well as make it even more alluring for the other tourneys if it fails to qualify. After dropping a closely contested battle with UW-Milwaukee on BracketBuster Saturday, the Stags bounced back with a solid road win and cover at Marist to move to 5-6 SU & ATS as a visitor. The win was also the teams 12th in conference play which has them just a single game back of Iona for conference supremacy. Fairfield is a very erratic team offensively (#233 at 65.2 PPG) but has converted on 36.5 percent of its shots from beyond the arc (#81). Its been solid defensively giving up just 60.5 PPG (#33) on 40.5 percent shooting from the field (#48), but its own turnovers (#254 at 14.5 per game) has cost it in many of its closely contested contests.

Iona hopes to head back to the Big Dance for the first time since 2006 when it lost to LSU in the first round. Its been just conference tournaments and the CIT for this squad since, but Head Coach Tim Cluess has a special group of kids at hand in 2012 that should go to the dance and possibly pull some upsets. This squad already took Purdue to overtime in its first game of the season, and also possesses scalps of Maryland, St. Joes, Denver, Richmond, and Nevada. The last coming last weekend at home in a game they toppled a pesky Wolfpack outfit 90-84 as eight-point chalk. The pointspread defeat was the teams fourth in its L/6 games, but the Gaels won all but one of those games outright. Iona checks in 8-1 SU but a bankroll bursting 1-6-1 ATS as a host having last covered a game in front of the hometown faithful back on January 20th.

Iona went into Webster Bank Arena and handed the Stags a 71-62 home defeat as short two-point road favorites back in late January; the win was their second in a row over Fairfield and snapped the home teams nine-game winning streak in the recent series. The favorite has covered five of these rivals L/6 overall meetings with the under cashing in four of those contests. The Stags have covered each of their L/4 in MAAC play, but have only managed a very poor 4-10 ATS mark the L/14 times they opposed a +.500 team. The Gaels check in 6-1-1 ATS the L/8 times they played off a pointspread defeat, but have gone just 2-5-1 ATS the L/8 times they opposed a +.600 opponent.

WUNDERDOG

Niagara at St. Peters
Pick: Niagara -3.5

Niagara at 12-15 is not a good team by any stretch, but what they have accomplished is three straight conference wins, and a team that is getting better and more confident. St. Peter's has managed just five wins on the season. As bad as that is, it looks like a team that has quit and is playing out the string with losses occurring in 9 of their last 10 games. That appearance has been reality as all nine losses have come by double-digits for the Peacocks. Niagara has done a great job mopping up bad teams as they are 9-2-1 ATS in their last 12 when facing a team with a winning percentage of below .400. The Peacocks may be home, but that has been an even uglier story, as they are 0-8 ATS in their last eight here. Play Niagara in this one.

Bryan Power

New York Rangers @ New York Islanders
PICK: New York Rangers

With this game being contested on Long Island rather than Manhattan, there is pretty good value on the visiting Rangers here. The Blue Shirts are well on their way to earning the top seed in the Eastern Conference while the Isles have resided near the bottom of the pack all season (and for multiple seasons). Their -36 goal differential is second worst in the league to Columbus while the Rangers are +43, fourth best in the league. After losing the first meeting of the year to their rival this season, the Rangers have beaten the Islanders three straight times, including a 3-0 shutout in the previous matchup. The Isles are 1-8 this season at home w/ double revenge. They have also been outscored 8-1 in their last two games.

Vegas Experts

Vancouver Canucks at New Jersey Devils
Play: New Jersey Devils

Two hot teams meet in East Rutherford tonight and we give the edge to the home team. Vancouver is off an emotional and hard fought victory last night in Detroit, snapping the Red Wings NHL record 23-game home win streak in a shootout. This makes this a classic letdown spot. The Devils have gone 9-1-1 the last 11 games overall. They have had two days off since beating the Maple Leafs, their fourth victory in a row. We agree with the early line move here.

Tony George

Butler -1

Unreal as this sounds Powerhouse Butler is playing with double revenge. This is not near the same team in Butler that played in the national title game last season, but they are well coached and playing a ton better than they were when these 2 first met in early December. That being said, Butler had to replace a ton of talent and now they are in sync and playing far better than the first week of the conference season when Valpo beat them by 6 points in OT at Butlers house. Butler is flat out awesome on defense as of late allowing less than 53 ppg their last 5 games, and defend the perimeter very well. The Bulldogs are fundamentally sound and well coached as always.

Valpo has wrapped up the conference title here and although this is a bitter in state rivalry at their house, I feel the revenge factor and stiff defense with a ton of motivation on Butlers part here will be the difference. Valpo’s strength is their 3 point range shooters, but Butler counters that with excellent outside defense. I was hoping for 2 or more points from oddsmakers for Butler, but oddsmakers are BEGGING you to take the home dog now, I am not buying it and am calling for a Butler win tonight by 3 to 4 points.

SPORTS WAGERS

Montreal +118 over WASHINGTON

The Capitals return home from a four-game trip with one win and three losses. They won the opener over Florida and subsequently lost to Tampa, Carolina and Ottawa, not exactly a difficult trip. Yet the Caps scored a total of five times in those four games. Over the final two games they were outscored 10-2. A response to that lame-effort trip is to be expected here but they may not be capable. Michael Neuvirth gets the start and it's his first home start since Dale Hunter took over. Alex Ovechkin insists he's playing but could be more of a liability than an asset. He’s nowhere near 100% and that doesn’t bode well for a guy that tries to do everything on his own. Montreal comes in with one of the NHL's best goaltenders. Despite losing their last two, the Habs have picked up points in six of nine games. Montreal will also be looking for a big response against a team they're 0-3 against this year and have not scored a single goal against. The Capitals are simply a team that is fading away badly. The desire is gone and the talent isn't far behind. Play: Montreal +118 (Risking 2 units).

COLUMBUS +114 over Colorado

The NHL trade deadline is this coming Monday and it's no secret that somebody is going to get traded to Columbus. Few hope it is them. There are many scouts at the Jackets’ games these days and every opposing player, whether it's consciously or subconsciously, does not want to stick out to said scouts. In other words they don't want to play well against the Jackets for fear of getting traded there. When we look at recent history, we see the Jackets picking up three out of a possible four points over San Jose and the Rangers. When we look at last year's three games before the trade deadline, we see the Jackets beating Nashville 4-0, Phoenix 5-3 and losing in Nashville 3-2 in a game that the Preds scored with 1:00 to go to win it. Coupled with the fact that the Avalanche aren’t exactly killing it, this one lines up well. The Avs just finished a four-game trip with one win. The lone victory was against the Kings and was just their fourth win in a month. In a game that they few players dare put their best foot forward, expect Colorado to be looking more for the exit doors as quickly as possible. Play: Columbus +114 (Risking 2 units).

Terron Chapman

Team Chuck vs. Team Shaq
Play: Team Chuck +4.5

Friday night’s BBVA Rising Star challenge will replace the traditional format of years past which saw the rookies square off against the sophomores. This year will feature two teams drafted by TNT analysts and former NBA All-Stars Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley. Each team will feature ten players from a pool of rookies and sophomores with Kenny Smith serving as the commissioner.

Usually it’s hard to find an edge in an All-Star game. In years past, the sophomores dominated this contest until Tyreke Evans and Brandon Jennings led the rookies to a 140-128 win in 2010. The win ended a seven-game losing skid for the rooks. Last season, John Wall (22 assists) and his former college teammate DeMarcus Cousins (33 points) led the way as the rooks were victorious once again, 148-140. This season, those two team up once again on team Chuck which finds itself as 4.5-point underdog according to odds makers.

Team Shaq features Blake Griffin and upstarts Jeremy Lin and Ricky Rubio. It also features three players (Jeremy Lin, Landry Fields and Norris Cole) that played last night. In addition to last season’s #1 overall pick, team Chuck features this season’s top pick, point guard Kyrie Irving. It also features the #2 overall pick Derrick Williams. The talent on team Chuck appears to be superior to that on team Shaq. Team Shaq showcases the marquee names at first glance, but a deeper look into the rosters and we can see that team Chuck has multiple ways to attack and score. Team Shaq is being coached by Chicago assistant Ron Adams and former Bulls shooter and Phoenix GM Steve Kerr. Oklahoma City assistant Maurice Cheeks is on the other sideline for team Chuck, joined by former NBA head coach Mike Fratello, perhaps giving Barkley’s squad the edge when it comes to coaching. Look for an up-tempo game which makes a look at the total worth considering. Oddsmakers are ready, however, setting a total of 271.5. But we think there is an edge to be had in backing team Chuck and we’ll gladly take advantage. Take team Chuck and the points at your sports book. Play on Team Chuck (+) the points for 1 unit.

Jeff Scott Sports

3 UNIT PLAYS

Loyola -3.5 over RIDER: The Greyhounds have a lot to play for in this one as they trail the Gaels by just 1 game in the standings and knowing the the Gaels play host to Fairfield tonight they know that if they win this game that have a good shot at being tied for the Conference lead by the end of the night. Regardless though the Greyhounds are the better team here, especially at the defensive end, where they have allowed just 63.8 ppg (87th), while Rider has allowed 75.32 ppg (325th). Loyola is not a great offensive team, but they have averaged 67.3 ppg overall, including 65.8 ppg on the road and they should be able to have a good game vs this pathetic Rider defense. Rider on offense has been solid most of the year (71.7 ppg), but they did just put up 61 points vs Albany (242nd in scoring defense) and 61 points vs Ioan (300th in scoring defense), plus they scored just 46 points the last time these two teams met, so this is not really a team that is clicking on offense right now and it won' tget any easier vs the Greyhounds tough defense tonight. Loyola needs this game a whole lot more and they are the better team as well. I feel they will win with ease behind another solid defensive performance.

Butler -1 over VALPARAISO: Google News Play. If you saw my other thread on the Sharps you'll know that I really am a bit uncomfortable with backing them, but I do feel that Butler is the right side here. The Bulldogs have a ton to play for here as they would like nothing more to get that 1st round bye in the Horizon tournament and a win here would do just that. Butler has really been playing good ball down the stretch , as they have won 5 in a row and have held those opponents to just 52.6 ppg and have outscored them by 12.8 ppg. Now that's Butler basketball. Their offense has also come alive a bit of late as they have put up 72 ppg in their last 2 games. Valpo really has nothing to play for as they already wrapped up the regular season title and have a bye in the Tourney, plus they weren't paying that well down the stretch as they went just 2-2 in their last 4 games. Butler also has revenge for an early loss to the Crusaders. Add it all up and you get a solid play on the Bulldogs tonight.

Penn/ Dartmouth Over 120: The first meeting saw just 113 points scored, but I feel this time will be a bit different. Dartmouth is a team that has struggled to score this year, but they still come in averaging 60 ppg in their last 4 home games, while Penn has allowed 64.7 ppg on the road and 56 ppg in Ivy road. Now if we can split the difference and get at least 58 from Dartmouth here then I feel we will be golden. The Quakers offense hasn't been that great, but tyhey have put up 82 points on Princeton this year and they have averaged 62 ppg in Ivy road games on the year. I do expect Penn to win this one outright (not sure they can cover though) and that's good news as the Quakers have averaged 66.1 ppg in their 7 Ivy wins 63.8 ppg in their last 7 Ivy losses. Splitting that difference will give us 64 by the Quakers, which if Dartmouth got 58 would give us our over. That's too close though and I'm actually looking for 125 points on up here as Penn should be good for at least 66, while Dartmouth will flirt with 60 points.

2 UNIT PLAY

Marquette +1.5 over WEST VIRGINIA: This game seems like a trap. Marquette was favored at Notre Dame (who was hot at the time) and they come in winners in 10 of their last 11 games, while WVU has lost 6 of 8, including a 27 point drubbing at the hands of the Irish 2 days ago, yet the Mountaineers are favored in this one. I don't get it. but what i do get is the fact that WVU has had all sorts of problems scoring of late (58.8 ppg in their last 4), while Marquette has been sizzling on offense, putting up 86.3 ppg on 51.9% shooting in their last 4 games. WVU is floundering, while Marquette is still in line for a high seed in the Big East tourney and that should have them fully focused and playing well in this one. This might have been a higher play, but the line seems a bit fishy so I made it a lesser play.

Canisius/ Manhattan Over 138: Canisuis has a bad defense as they allow 74.6 ppg overall and 81.1 ppg on the road, including allowing 78.7 ppg in their conference road games. Manhattan has averaged just 68.2 ppg at home overall, but they have put up 73.6 ppg in their last 5 at home. Canisius has averaged 68.7 ppg on the road and while the Jaspers have allowed 59.3 ppg overall at home they have allowed 66 ppg in their last 4 on their home floor. This one should hit the low 140's.

Rocketman

Loyola Maryland @ Rider
Play: Loyola Maryland -4

Loyola Maryland comes in with a 20-7 record overall this year while Rider is 11-18 overall on the season. We have a good road covering team, Loyola Maryland (96-50 ATS on the road since 1997,) going against a poor home covering team, Rider (9-23 ATS past 3 years at home.) Rider is 1-7 ATS last 8 as a home underdog. Loyola Maryland is a well balanced team with four players scoring in double digits led by guard Dylan Cormier and is 13.8 ppg. Erik Etherly is 2nd in scoring on the team averaging 13.3 points per game and is their leading rebounder pulling in 7.6 rebounds per game. Loyola Maryland is currently a game behind MAAC Leader Iona and will want a solid performance here tonight with one regular season game left at Manhattan on Sunday. We'll recommend a small play on Loyola Maryland tonight!