Monday's Best NCAAB Bet
Baylor Bears at Kansas State Wildcats
The Baylor Bears aren’t big fans of away games. The team has played exactly twice in true road games this year and the results have been mixed – a lackluster, 71-59 win over a horrid Texas Tech squad, and a 72-57 setdback against a mediocre Iowa State team.
What makes the trend even more troubling, is the fact the Bears were a mediocre 1-3 on neutral courts this season. The team went 6-4 on the road last year, but has been a far cry from that squad.
Meantime, for all the turmoil and inconsistent play that has plagued the Wildcats this season, Kansas State has been a force at home, going 10-1. Guard Jacob Pullen appears to finally be regaining his form after an early season suspension and has topped the 20-point mark five times in his six games back.
“We’re getting better,” Kansas State coach Frank Martin said. “I understand our record doesn’t show it, but we’re better prepared to win today than we were January 1.”
Overall, Baylor has dropped two of its past three, while Kansas State has dropped four of its past five but is 4-4 in its last eight. The Wildcats also have won two straight and three of their past five meetings against the Bears.
Pick: Kansas State
Notre Dame, Pitt highlight NCAA betting slate
By: David Schwab
Monday’s men’s basketball schedule features a big showdown in the Big East when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish travel to the Petersen Events Center to tangle with the Pittsburgh Panthers. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. (ET) and the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.
Notre Dame appears to be back on track after losing three of five games earlier in the month with a 66-58 victory over Cincinnati this past Wednesday as a 4 ½-point home favorite and an 80-75 win over Marquette as a 3 ½-point home favorite on Saturday.
The Fighting Irish are now 16-4 straight-up and 8-7 against the spread, and 5-3 SU in Big East play.
Senior’s Ben Hansbrough and Tim Abromaitis have provided the bulk of the offense for Notre Dame this season. Hansbrough is averaging 15.8 points per game, leads the team with 3.8 assists, and is shooting 42.6 percent from three-point range, while Abromaitis is averaging 15.2 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds per game. A third senior, forward Carleton Scott rounds out a very experienced lineup with 11.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
The Irish are averaging 75 points a game and shooting 44.9 percent from the floor. They have been efficient from the foul-line, converting 72.8 percent of their attempts and are hitting 36.7 percent from beyond the three-point line. Notre Dame is averaging just below 38 rebounds per game.
Pittsburgh put itself in position to move up in the rankings with a huge 74-66 win over the current No. 3 team Syracuse this past Monday. The Panthers closed as a 6 ½-point home favorite and the total went ‘over’ the 138 point line. They followed this up with an 80-50 rout of DePaul as a 16-point road favorite to run their record to 19-1 SU overall and 8-7 ATS. Pitt is currently the only undefeated team in conference play at 7-0 SU.
The Panthers are an extremely deep team with nine players averaging over 10 minutes of playing time a game. Junior guard Ashton Gibbs is the team’s leading scorer with 16 points per game. Senior guard Brad Wanamaker leads the team in assists with 5.4 per game and is averaging 12.9 points and senior center Gary McGhee is the big man underneath the boards with 7.7 rebounds per game.
Pitt is ranked 19th in the nation is scoring with an average of 80 points per game and is ranked first in team assists with an average of 19.9 per game. What makes the Panthers extremely effective is their 43 rebounds per game which is also ranked first in the country. Add in the fact they are shooting 48.5 percent from the field and 39.8 percent from three-point range and you can easily see why they are one of the current favorites to win it all this year.
Notre Dame is 3-4 ATS in its last seven road games and 3-2 ATS in its last five games overall. The total has stayed ‘under’ in three of last its last four games.
Pittsburgh is 3-1 ATS in its last four games at home and 4-1 ATS in its last five games overall. The total has stayed ‘under’ in three of its last four games as well.
Head-to-head, the Irish have actually won three out of the last four games both SU and ATS. Last season they knocked Pitt out of the Big East Conference Tournament with a 50-45 victory as a two-point underdog and beat the Panthers 68-53 in the regular season as a one-point home underdog.
This time around, these teams are not that closely matched. The Irish should open as a double-digit road underdog and will need every point possible to keep things close enough to cover. Unless the line breaches the low-teens mark, the Panthers remain the pick in this one.
Game of the day: Notre Dame at Pittsburgh
By Marc Lawrence
A battle of Big East basketball powers tips off in Pittsburgh Monday night when the conference-leading Panthers (19-1, 7-0) host the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame (16-4, 5-3).
THE PITTSBURGH ZOO
Playing at the Petersen Events Center is tough enough on visiting teams, where Pittsburgh is currently 145-11 all-time, including 9-0 against Top 5 ranked opponents.
Adding fuel to the fire is the famed student section at the Pete, commonly known as “The Zoo”.
"The Zoo really helps us out a lot," Pitt forward Gilbert Brown said after helping the Panthers to a 74-66 win over former unbeaten Syracuse last Monday in front of a record crowd of 12,925. "There is a reason why we're so tough to play at home."
HOW TOUGH?
Despite a 19-0 run to open the game, Pitt found itself tied, 41-41 with less than 13 minutes remaining in the game.
A 24-12 run made it 65-53 in short order. The only question down the stretch was whether the Orange would cover the 6-point spread.
They did not.
CRUISE CONTROL
The Panthers cruised to their ninth straight win in an 80-50 destruction of DePaul in Chicago Saturday.
Keying the spurt were seniors Gilbert Brown, Brad Wanamaker and Gary McGhee. Brown scored 17 points while Wanamaker had nine points and nine assists and McGhee controlled the paint with 15 rebounds.
"They're playing really well. I talked to other people in the last couple weeks about how it's rare that the three seniors play this well and it is even more rare that three seniors improve during their senior year as much as they have," said head coach Jamie Dixon.
"All three of them are playing at a high, high level. Their leadership and the way they handle things is beyond the call.”
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Notre Dame senior guard Ben Hansbrough began his career at Mississippi State University, and played two seasons with the Bulldogs. He averaged 8.8 points over those two years.
Upon transferring, Hansbrough knew that Irish would offer him exactly what he was looking for.
"Obviously you get the best of both worlds here — academically and with sports," Hansbrough said. "Basketball's in the best conference in America, and you're constantly getting national exposure. At the same time, you're graduating from an excellent academic institution."
As a result, Hansbrough has become the de facto leader of the Irish and now thrives on his confidence, and it's that confidence that allows him to play at a high level.
Hansbrough claims his confidence was instilled in him from competing against his older brothers Greg and former North Carolina standout and current Indiana Pacers forward Tyler.
"My brother's had a lot of success," he said. "I would say that I took a lot of his work ethic. Seeing the success he's had and just watching and learning how he got there, you kind of learn how he was successful with his work ethic and his game on and off the court. You just can kind of learn from it, and it's been really good for me to learn from that and see the success he's had from his hard work.”
Hansbrough leads the Irish in scoring, assists, steals and 3-point percentage.
Irish coach Mike Brey raves about how well Hansbrough has let the game come to him this year, instead of searching for shots.
"He makes you believe," Brey said. "He makes his teammates believe. His body language helps us believe we can win."
Hansbrough scored a career-best 28 points and sparked a second-half spurt that rallied Notre Dame back from a 12-point deficit to an 80-75 victory over Marquette Saturday night.
HEALTHY AGAIN
Rarely will a player affect a game so thoroughly in a modest 15 minutes, but 5th-year senior F Carleton Scott had a huge impact on Notre Dame's 66-58 victory over Cincinnati last Wednesday when he returned from two weeks early from a torn hamstring.
ND coach Brey originally targeted Feb. 3 as Scott’s return date. He stepped onto the court about six minutes in and a 3-pointer helped fuel a 13-0 run that established Notre Dame's control.
"It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders," said Scott, who finished with six points. "The run started before I got in, and that's a testament to what we do here. I just jumped in like, 'Hey, can I get in on it?' And they let me in on it. The shot fell and everything was rolling."
Said Brey: "Just his presence on the court as a leader and a voice really helped the rest of his teammates."
Scott started and played 34 minutes in Saturday’s victory over Marquette, posting a double-double (10 rebounds and 11 points) in the contest.
Upon closer examination
Both teams have excelled at home this campaign, each going 13-0 in front of the hometown faithful.
Life on the road, however, has been a dichotomy for each of these teams this season where the Panthers are 3-0 while the Irish are 0-4.
Notre Dame, though, enters tonight’s fray sporting a 35-20 spread mark under coach Brey as a conference road dog, including 15-6 versus an opponent off a straight up win and pointspread cover.
TALE OF THE TAPE
According to Covers.com College Basketball Statistics, here is a breakdown of how each team ranks among 345 others in three pivotal stat categories, namely Offensive Field Goal Percentage, Defensive Field Goal Percentage and Rebound Margin this season:
Offensive FG Percentage
Pittsburgh 48.5 – No. 14
Notre Dame 45.2 – No. 89
Defensive FG Percentage
Pittsburgh 40.1 – No. 47
Notre Dame 41.0 – No. 75
Rebound Margin
Pittsburgh +13.6 - No. 1
Notre Dame +5.9 – No. 34
CONSIDER THIS
Notre Dame is 6-5 straight up and 8-2-1 against the spread in this series when the Irish own a win percentage of more than .666 on the season, including 8-0 when ND plays off a win of three or more points in its last game.
Big Monday Notes
By Chris David
Now that the pro football season is down to one meaningful game, a lot of bettors turn to basketball. The college game takes a lot more focus with 300-plus schools battling on the hardwood nightly but with just about seven weeks before March Madness tips, the contenders and pretenders are pretty clear-cut. Even though this week’s Top 25 rankings have different conferences represented in the first five spots, the Big East has an overwhelming presence and they should.
When you boast a league of 16 teams, which is the largest in Division 1, you better come to play. Since this is the deepest and most talented group from top to bottom in the country, is the best team in the Big East ranked first in the land? The answer is no, but the Pittsburgh Panthers (19-1 straight up, 8-7 against the spread) are poised to be on the top line when the brackets are announced in mid-March.
After hammering DePaul 80-50 on Sunday as 16½-point road favorites, the Panthers improved to 7-0 in conference play and remain the only unbeaten in the Big East. Jamie Dixon’s team has posted a respectable 5-2 ATS record during this hot start and the oddsmakers are starting to take notice.
On Monday, Pittsburgh opened as a 10-point home favorite against Notre Dame (16-4 SU, 8-7 ATS) and the number spiked to 10 ½ and 11 at a few prominent offshore outfits. In their four home conference games, the Panthers have outscored their opponents by an average of 13 points per game (78-65). And that includes last Monday’s eight-point win over Syracuse (74-66).
Only one team has been able to solve Pittsburgh this season and it was Tennessee on Dec. 11 in a non-conference affair. The recipe for success was good shooting and the Volunteers were great. Bruce Pearl’s squad hit 56 percent from the field, including a 7-of-11 (64%) mark from 3-point land and they shot 22-of-30 (73%) at the charity stripe. Pittsburgh finished with a 40 percent night and it missed 17 free throws (25-of-42) in the loss as an eight-point home favorite.
We mention that poor effort from the free throw line because that could be Achilles’ heel of the Panthers. The school is shooting 66 percent as a team, which is ranked 14th in the Big East. While that number may or may not cost Pittsburgh a loss down the road is undetermined, but you know damn well it could definitely rip up one of your betting slips.
The Fighting Irish have the talent and shooting ability to pull of the upset on Monday but it’s hard to back a team that hasn’t showed up on the road. Outside of South Bend, Notre Dame has gone 3-4 and that includes four straight losses. Coach Mike Brey and company actually started the season well on the road, capturing the Old Spice Classic from Orlando with solid wins over Georgia (89-83), California (57-44) and Wisconsin (58-51). The kids from Berkley are down this season, but the Bulldogs and Badgers should go dancing come March.
Unfortunately for the Irish, that road run ended in late November and it’s been downhill since. The next four road trips have resulted in four losses, all by double digits too. And the team has scored 58, 58, 57 and 54 points during this skid. Notre Dame has watched the ‘under’ produce a 6-1 mark in these contests. Can the offense turn it around against a Panthers defense that is only giving up 62 PPG?
The last four regular season meetings between the pair has watched the home team win and three of those games went ‘over’ the number. Tip off for tonight’s game is set for 7:00 p.m. EST, with ESPN providing coverage.
Big 12 Battle
The second game of the Big Monday double-header pits Baylor (13-5 SU, 4-7 ATS) against Kansas State (13-7, 4-9 ATS) from Manhattan. These two schools made some serious noise last year during March Madness and even though you have a lot season left, both schools can be labeled disappointments. The Wildcats opened Big 12 play with a 1-4 record and the lone win came against Texas Tech, who’s the worst team in the conference. Baylor was humbled in this televised spot last Monday at home in an 85-66 loss to Kansas. The Bears rebounded on Saturday with a sound victory over Oklahoma State (76-57) behind a monster game from freshman Perry Jones (24 points). The projected No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft is starting to show his ability, which isn’t a good thing for opponents. Total players might want to note that Kansas State (11-3) has been golden to the ‘under’ this season. The number is hovering between 136 and 137 for tonight’s contest, which starts at 9:00 p.m. EST.
Must-See Games this Week
Tuesday – Purdue at Ohio State
Wednesday – San Diego State at BYU, Texas at Oklahoma State
Thursday – St. Mary’s at Gonzaga
Saturday – Louisville at UConn, Syracuse at Marquette, Missouri at Texas
Sunday – Washington at Washington State
vegasinsider.com