Marc Lawrence
Game: Washington at Stanford
Play On: Washington Huskies
Note: Huskies invade the Farm at Stanford looking to atone for a 65-51 home loss suffered earlier this year in Pullman against the Cardinal. The setup in this game is ideal with Washington off an upset loss and Stanford of a double-digt win over arch-rival California. Noting the Cardinal is 0-4 ATS at home against teams off a loss this season, and with the Huskies sitting 'on the bubble' at 14-13 on the year, look for the Huskies to improve to 11-4 ATS as a dog at Maples Pavilion here tonight.
Jimmy The Moose
Game: Pittsburgh Penguins at Boston Bruins
Prediction: Boston Bruins
Reason: Both team's are playing some good hockey right now. The Penhuins are battling for top spot in the Eastern Conference while the Bruins are looking to climb in the playoff standings. Boston hsa won their last 4 overall as well as their last 4 vs. Conference opponents. In their last 7 games vs. a team with a winning record they are 5-2. Pittsburgh struggles when facing the Bruins. The Penguins are 5-13 in their last 18 trips to Boston and 8-20-1 in the last 29 meetings overall between the clubs. Play on the Bruins
Vegas Sports Pics
Notre Dame Fighting Irish + 8 over (at) Louisville Cardinals
No.13 Louisville (22-6, 12-3) vs. No.17 Notre Dame (21-5, 11-3) starting two of the Big East's top seven scorers leads the league averaging 80.7 ppg. Teams have split last two meetings, Irish at home winning 78-62 last season, UL winning at home 89-86 in OT the previous season.
Wisconsin Badgers - 6 over Michigan State Spartans
No.19 Michigan State (22-5, 10-4) has lost its last three road games. No.10 Wisconsin (23-4, 13-2) in Big Ten games leads the league in scoring defense (56.3) and scoring margin (+ 9.0) Last meeting: Badgers beat the Spartans 70-57 in last season's Big Ten tournament.
Washington State Cougars - 3 over (at) California Golden Bears
California (15-10, 6-8) is 1-3 last four games including a 92-70 home loss to (6-9 Pac10) Oregon on 02/09. No.22 Washington State (21-6, 9-6) is 11-2 away from home off winning at Oregon 62-53 on 02/16. The Cougars won at the Bears 73-56 last season.
Vegas Experts
Washington Huskies at Stanford Cardinal
Washington looks NIT bound with its 15-13 record. It ends the year with three straight road games, however, so if it doesn't want to sink below the .500 mark best get cracking and win at least one of those contests (at Stanford, at Cal, at Washington State). It comes in with revenge having dropped a 65-51 January 31 decision to the Cardinal at home. That snapped a run of three straight covers in the series for the Huskies. Here at Stanford they lost the last three by one, nine and 10 points. They are 2-4 S/U on the Pac-10 road with an early win at Arizona State and a late win at OSU. That's part of a three wins in five games run that they Huskies are on now that includes home wins over UCLA and Arizona. Stanford has bigger fish to fry than this down the road: it finishes the season home to Washington State, at UCLA in a revenge match and at USC.
Play on: Washington
Tony Karpinski
Wright State vs. Butler
Play: Wright State
Wright State has quietly moved into second place in the Horizon Conference with a 12-4 record in league play. The Raiders have won ten straight conference games. Their success has been because of their tough defense, allowing conference opponents on average to 40% shooting from the field and 50 points per game. They are a physical and grinding team. This tough style of play enabled them to defeat Butler at home earlier in the season as a 7 ½ point underdog. Butler is an outstanding team with several wins against opponents in the RPI Top 50. However, they do struggle scoring at times. The Bulldogs are a good team because they do not make mistakes, have good fundamentals, and they play great defense. However, they do not light up the scoreboard and blowout opponents. These two teams are very similar in their style of play, and they are familiar with each other. I don’t expect Wright State to be intimidated in this game, as they will be determined to win this game outright. I expect a low scoring and tightly contested game with Butler pulling out the win at the end of the game. Look for this double digit underdog to keep the game close.
James Patrick Sports
Bucks vs. Nets
The Bucks have been cruising Over the Total of late as they have cashed in at a 7-1 ATS clip. Our complimentary selection in Thursday action from the Izod Center is on
Milwaukee – New Jersey OVER the TOTAL in NBA action
Marc Lawrence
Play On: Washington Huskies
Note: Huskies invade the Farm at Stanford looking to atone for a 65-51 home loss suffered earlier this year in Seattle against the Cardinal. The setup in this game is ideal with Washington off an upset loss and Stanford off a double-digit win over arch-rival California. Noting the Cardinal is 0-4 ATS at home against teams off a loss this season, and with the Huskies sitting 'on the bubble' at 14-13 on the year, look for the Huskies to improve to 11-4 ATS as a dog at Maples Pavilion here tonight.
Greg Daraban
Tennessee Chat (17-11) at NC Greesboro (16-11)
Mocking Birds roll into Greensboro with a 12-6 league record.Stephen McDowell 15.1, and Nicchaeus Doaks led the way for the Mocs. Greensboro having a nice season and they do have a win over ACC power Georgia Tech back in November.
Dave Cokin
USC @ 530 Arizona
Play: USC +5
USC will be out to avenge an 80-69 home loss suffered at the hands of Arizona. They'll have one of their most vital cogs back on the floor as Daniel Hackett is expected to play at least limited minutes. The Trojans get a definite psychological boost with Hackett back in action, and they're clearly a better offensive team with him in the lineup. Arizona is always tough at home, but I see this as a game with a great chance to be decided on the last possession, and I'm opting for USC plus the points.
Great Lakes
Wright State at Butler
Play on: Butler Bulldogs
The Bulldogs are 73 ATS after a non conference game this year, and are 26-13 ATS after a non conference game the last three years while Wright State is only 2-4 ATS in Femruary this year, and 5-9 ATS vs conference opponents this year. We look for the Butler Bulldogs to roll over Wright State for the home ATS Win & cover tonight.
Scott Rickenbach
Miami Heat @ Los Angeles Lakers
PICK: Miami Heat
As usual, the detailed analysis for this selection will be posted here by 9 AM ET. However, we get our plays up as early as possible for all you early players and so we post it first without the write-up. This way you can make your play early and then please check back after 9 AM ET for the full details on this match-up.
EdgeOnOdds
Dallas Mavericks @ San Antonio Spurs
Pick: UNDER 182
Reasoning: The Spurs and Mavericks meet in the battle of Texas as top seeds in the West. The Spurs have dominated the league with outstanding defensive play holding teams to just 90.8 points per contest while the Mavericks have dominated with a balanced attack of offense and defense scoring 99.2 a game (12th) and allowing 95.1 a game (6th).Today we see a total listed at 182 which is slightly lower then normal. However, this line will draw attention to the OVER before the tip at 8pm est. Thursday Night. Combined these two score nearly 190 a game and allow over 186. San Antonio has played three of their last four games OVER the total and will have point guard Tony Parker back at 100% for tonight’s contest. Dallas has played over twice in their last four with a push on 196 against Chicago. Jason Kidd will make his national TV appearance with Dallas tonight on TNT. Thankfully for us the public will jump on the OVER leaving a better line on the UNDER. Dallas has an average total of 196 this year while SA has a average total of 188. Combined the average total for these two should be 192.44, a number nearly 10.5 points above this set total. What does this tell us exactly? It strongly dictates that the odds makers see a low scoring game here. Like the Phoenix Memphis game that had a difference of 9.5 to the OVER and ended up doing so by 29 it is strongly recommended you back the UNDER tonight. Since many people do not look at this stat often or even at all it leaves lines ripe for the taking. A 10 point swing is as juicy as it gets. Four of the past five games between these two have fallen UNDER the total and tonight should be no exception. Take the UNDER and cash in on game one of the Thursday Night DOUBLEHADER!!
JEFFERSONSPORTS
SAN ANTONIO-5
Ok, where do I start here. First I really believe the Mavs will be a public favorite tomorrow. Early money is coming in on the Mavs at about 58/42 . I think the line might even drop some. Spurs have covered last 5 of 6 games. I like the fact that the Spurs had 5 points in the 1st quarter last time out vs the Hawks. If anyone knows the Spurs they are infamous for the slow starts and then Pops rips them a new one at half time and then they come out to play. I think they will start off fast here. Another edge I like in this game that will not be recognized very much is the fact that Devin Harris was actually quick enough to hang with Parker. Kidd is going to have a tough time with him. I look for a really good game from Tony as I think he will be able to get to the rim a lot. I also love the addition of Kurt Thomas. He is a very underrated defensive player and a good rebounder. He can also knock down the 15 footer and thats what the Spurs need at that position. Ginobili has been unbelievable the last few games. I look for a focused effort by the Spurs as I think the Mavs still have a little adjusting to do with Kidd. We will see, I think Parker and Ginobili show up big and spurs roll
Spurs-5
WINNING POINTS
***BEST BET
Michigan State over Wisconsin* by 7
The time is about right for the dormant Izzos to become talked about again but we’re
certainly not going to wait until after they do something like this to say it. The
Spartans have an 18.4-to-14.6 Assist-to-Turnover Ratio for the season vs. Wisconsin’s 12.8-to-12.7. Michigan State gets 61% of its points on 2-point shots, the second-highest frequency in the nation in that department. They are a formidable offensive rebounding team. They have Wisconsin’s Kohl Center as an “impossible” place to win to sweeten the pot for their challenge (and if Purdue could do it, so could MSU). Is Wisconsin’s interior defense as strong as they think it is?
MICHIGAN STATE, 70-63.
POINTWISE
ARIZONA RATING: 1
WRIGHT STATE RATING: 2
Scott Spreitzer
Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Louisville Cardinals
I'm laying the points with Louisville. Everything Notre Dame does, Louisville has the answer for, and does even better. The Irish are led by PF Luke Harangody and his 20.2 PPG. The Cardinals counter with David Padgett, along with Caracter and Palacios inside. The Irish take to the perimeter with Kyle McAlarney. The Cards counter with four solid backcourt players, led by Jerry Smith and Earl Clark. There has been a lot of talk about Notre Dame's success against zone defenses, but they haven't faced a team with Louisville's depth. The fact that Pitino can go 10-men deep means the Cards can extend the zone and attack the Irish perimeter shooters. It doesn't hurt that they have the multiple big bodies mentioned above to hang inside on Harangody when the guards do extend. Add in Louisville's full-court pressure and one of the nation's top-5 FG percentage defenses, and I believe the Irish are about to take a beating.
Play on: Louisville
Steve Merril
UC Davis vs. Pacific
Cal Davis enters this game on a 10-game losing streak, but it has now created line value and the Aggies fit a solid 76-35 ATS contrary indicator which plays on well-rested underdogs that are on an extended losing streak.
Cal Davis also fits a 132-81 ATS big dog underdog situation which plays on road dogs that prefer a slowdown, half-court style. Pacific also plays a half-court game and this will make it more difficult for the Tigers to win by a large margin tonight. This was evident in the earlier meeting this month when Pacific only won by five points (72-67) at Cal Davis.
Play CAL DAVIS
Mighty Quinn
Louisville -8
MadduxSports
Wright State +13
RedZone Sports
St. Louis Billikens
Cappers Access
Louisville
Arizona
Scott Spreitzer
Wake Forest
Joe Wiz
Maryland
Wright St
Bob Donahue
St Joes
Brandon Lang
10 Dime Wright St
10 Dime UCLA
5 Dime USC
5 Dime Wisconsin
5 Dime Hawaii
Tony Weston
Dallas Mavericks - San Antonio Spurs
As entertaining as this game should be, it won’t be close down the stretch as the San Antonio Spurs will win their seventh consecutive game and sixth in seven games ATS.
Even though the Mavs come into the game winners of 2 of their last 3 games ATS, they have been very below average on the road. Dallas is only 12-18 ATS on the road for the season, but is 3-6 its last nine games away from Big D.
The Spurs, on the other hand, have been on an absolute tear, going 10-1 SU their last 11 games and 8-3 ATS in that stretch.
San Antonio is also 4-1 ATS at home its last five games.
The Spurs are playing better than they’ve played all year and will get a strong win over the Mavs.
Take the Spurs at home.
3* SPURS (1* to 5* Scale)