Wednesday's Best NCAAB Bets
Toledo Rockets at Illinois Fighting Illini (-30, N/A)
Illinois looked like a contender for the Big Ten title Monday night, at least for the first half of its opening game against UC Irvine.
The Illini held a 42-18 lead at the midway mark, making bettors feel quiet comfy giving the 21 points to the Anteaters. But, they took their foot off the gas in the second half, getting outscored 47-37 and blowing the payday with a 79-65 win.
Coach Bruce Weber, who wasn’t impressed with his team’s efforts in the preseason, knew his players would come out flat in the final 20 minutes after watching them warm up before the second half kicked off.
"I decided to just let them go and use it as a learning lesson,'' Weber told the Star Courier. "The first thing I said in the locker room was, 'How was warmup?' They said not good. How did we play in the second half? Not good.
"We talked all along about our goals. One of them was controlling the home court and learning to be intimidating. We were intimidating in the first half. We were all over the place. You've got to do that against the best teams and do that for longer, extended periods.''
With that lesson fresh in the heads of the Illini, expect a full 40-minute effort from Illinois against the Rockets Wednesday night.
Pick: Illinois
Charleston Cougars at Maryland Terrapins (-14, 157.5)
A lot of questions surround Gary Williams’ program heading into this season, most prominent is how the Terrapins plan to move on without star guard Greivis Vasquez. Maryland bettors may have gotten an answer Monday night.
The Terps knocked off the Seattle Redhawks in their season opener, winning 105-76 as 19.5-point favorites. The most encouraging part of Monday’s victory was the production from Maryland’s youngsters. Freshman guard Terrell Stoglin scored 15 points while fellow first-year guard Pe'Shon Howard chipped in with five points and eight assists.
Williams went with 11 players in the first half and finished giving run to all 13 uniforms. With the mix-and-match lineups, the Terrapins did struggle with turnovers, coughing up the ball 29 times – 15 of those in the first half. Stoglin and Howard were responsible for seven of those turnovers.
"They were great for their first college game," Williams told the Washington Post of his freshman guards. "They played with lot of confidence. They're going to try some passes that probably don't work, but (ideally) they won't try them again. That's where you see if they're making progress: If they don't try them again."
Terps fans will see a tighter offense on Wednesday as Williams gets a better grasp on this roster.
Pick: Maryland
NCAA Basketball Odds: 2K Sports Classic
By: Willie Bee
The four regional hosts for the first round of the 2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer sent their fans home winners, though just two covered and cashed for their college basketball bettors.
The quartet–Pitt, Illinois, Texas and Maryland–will continue play Wednesday on their home courts again before convening at Madison Square Garden next week to decide a champ. Those games will start Thursday (Nov. 18) at 4 p.m. PT and broadcast on ESPN2. The openers have Pittsburgh taking on Maryland (Nov. 18) and Illinois facing Texas. The two winners will meet the following day for the tourney title with the losers meeting in the consolation matchup.
NCAA basketball spreads below are courtesy of Bookmaker.com's openers and the ranking are from the preseason AP poll.
Illinois-Chicago at No. 5 Pittsburgh (-23½)
Pitt failed to cover a 12-point line in its 83-75 win versus Rhode Island, easily the toughest opposition any of the hosts faced in season-opening action. The Rams held tight with the Panthers early with Pittsburgh taking a slim 37-36 lead into halftime. Rhode Island was up by eight just before intermission, before the Panthers rallied. Pitt didn't have the lead for good until five minutes into the second half.
Brad Wanamaker and Ashton Gibbs scored 24 and 22 respectively, 14 of their combined points coming at the line. The pair of guards were ineffective from long range, sinking 2-of-8 together, but the Panthers' rebounding helped make up for that.
Jamie Dixon's lads will now take on an Illinois-Chicago team that went 3-15 last year in the Horizon League and isn't likely to be that much better this year. Robo Kreps is the only proven scoring threat the Flames have and Pitt has the frontline advantage.
The Panthers will continue their schedule this Saturday at home against North Florida on Saturday before heading to New York for next week's tournament continuation.
Charleston at Maryland (-14)
If there was one school among the host teams expected to struggle in its opener, even against an independent like Seattle, it was Maryland. The Terrapins thumbed their noses at those expectations, however, with a 105-76 win and cover. Maryland was 21-point chalk in the game and reached the 100-point plateau on 56 percent shooting from the field as a team and scoring 33 at the line thanks to a couple of hot charity stripe shooters.
Where Gary Williams squad short a shortcoming was in shooting the three-ball. With their two-point game working, Maryland wasn't forced to go outside but still hit just two of eight. Williams still has to be happy about getting freshmen Pe'Shon Howard and Terrell Stoglin into the game with excellent results. Howard worked 24 minutes and dished out a team-high eight assists with five points. Stoglin scored 15 in 18 minutes, including a perfect 9-for-9 from the free throw line.
The Terps now face a College of Charleston team that would love nothing more than to take down a second ACC school in two seasons. Bobby Cremins' Cougars figure to be overmatched as far as rosters go, but then...
Maryland has a home game with Maine this Sunday before traveling to New York next week.
Toledo at No. 13 Illinois (-29½)
If Bruce Weber's strategy this season is to depend on the other guys going scoreless for a 5-6 minute stretch and Brandon Paul hitting six of every eight from 3-point land, the Fighting Illini are in trouble. Illinois was a 22-point favorite in its 79-65 over Cal-Irvine in Monday's opener. Too bad that wasn't the first-half betting line when the Illini held a 42-18 lead.
Paul came off the bench to lead Illinois in scoring, all of his 18 points via the six treys. Demetri McCamey's 31 minutes led the Illini starters as Weber worked in 12 players.
The Toledo Rockets don't figure to have as cold a first half as the Anteaters did on Monday. But they could put up less of a fight in the end.
Illinois will take on the Salukis of Southern Illinois this Saturday at Assembly Hall in advance of their trip to MSG.
Louisiana Tech at Texas (-19)
I'm not saying Longhorns coach Rick Barnes had money riding on the game Monday against Navy. Nevertheless, he played like it with just nine players rotated in and out during an easy 83-52 win and cover over Navy. Granted, Barnes is trying to refill just about an entire starting lineup from the team he ended with last March. A sloppy first half was followed by a strong second half to cash for those that followed Texas minus 27 on the board.
The 'Horns failed from beyond the arc, hitting just four of the 17 three's they put up. True freshman Cory Joseph started and played 25 minutes for Texas, scoring just five points and committing three turnovers with four fouls. Fellow frosh Tristan Thompson scored 12 off the bench for the Longhorns, but showed a big need for improvement from the FT line hitting just 4-of-10.
La Tech should provide Barnes with another opportunity to get a backcourt groove going between the trio of Joseph, Dogus Balbay and J'Covan Brown. If not, he'll have plenty of practice time to work on it with no games scheduled between this one and the matchup with Illinois next week in NYC.
NCAAB Preview
Maryland was up 10 at half Monday, won by 29 over Seattle tean that is making transition to D-I; Terps lost three starters from last year's club that went 24-9 (13-3 in ACC) but they expect to be quicker and better on defense. Charleston beat North Carolina LY, but lost to Clemson by 39, Tennessee by 17. Cougars have three starters back from 22-12 team.
Pitt should have better crowd tonight (Steelers were playing during their game Monday); they survived 14-32 shooting from arc in holding off a gritty URI team 83-75 Monday (up 1 at half). Ill-Chicago's coach quit in July after an 8-22 season; they've got three starters back from 8-22, 3-15 team. Doubtful they're ready to hang in with Pitt squad that already has a game under its belt.
Illinois was up 24 at the half in its opener vs Cal-Irvine, won 79-65, as they held Anteaters to 35% from floor; Illini blocked eight shots. Toledo was 4-28 LY, winning one game after Dec 10; new coach Kowalczyk had 44 wins in last two years at Green Bay. Rockets have only four players back from LY. Michigan transfer Wright figures to help immediately.
Texas was up 29-20 at half, pulled away from weak Navy squad 83-52 in its opener; Longhorns lost three starters from 24-10/9-7 team that had chemistry issues. Louisiana Tech has nine new players, only couple of returning starters from LY's 24-11/9-7 team. Tech has only one senior; they lost to Arizona by 16, New Mexico by 29 LY, and they had much more experienced team LY.