ANTON WINS
4 units Denver -8
EZ Winners
5 STAR: (716) UTAH (-1) over Detroit
(Risking $550 to win $500)
NCAA
3 STAR: (748) GEORGIA (-1) over Florida
(Risking $330 to win $300)
2 STAR: (760) TEXAS A&M (-9) over Texas Tech
(Risking $220 to win $200)
2 STAR: (790) GEORGE MASON (-13.5) over William & Mary
(Risking $220 to win $200)
THE DUKE
College Game of The Year tonight
Appalachian State +15.5
MATT FARGO
PICK: UTEP
The Miners have won two straight games and it was the first that is the most impressive as they picked up their first conference road win of the season at Marshall last Wednesday. UTEP easily took out East Carolina on Saturday to improve to 12-1 at home this season. This includes a perfect 6-0 record in conference home games with the average margin of victory being +13.2 ppg. The lone defeat came against a tough New Mexico team in overtime by just a single point.
UAB has responded very well from that last second loss against then-top ranked Memphis as it has won its two games since then. The first was a home against Houston by just a bucket while its most recent win came at lowly SMU on Saturday, not exactly the most impressive. The Blazers lone home loss was that game against Memphis but it is a different story on the road. UAB is 6-5 away from home with a win at Central Florida being the only one of the six against a team with a winning conference record.
UTEP is currently tied with Southern Mississippi and Central Florida for fourth place in the conference but there is a lot of room to move up. After this game, UAB must still go to Memphis while hosting two decent teams in Tulsa and Tulane. The other second place team, Houston must also come to El Paso and has home games against Southern Mississippi and Central Florida. This is all so important because the top four teams in the conference receive bye in the first round of the C-USA Tournament.
As far as revenge factors, UTEP wants this one bad. The Miners were outrebounded in that first meeting 51-32, an eight-point loss back on February 9th. “That’s where we lost the game,” UTEP coach Tony Barbee said after the game. “They out-toughed us…it was disgusting to watch. I’m so disappointed.” That being said, we can expect a much stronger effort on the boards tonight and that usually equates to wins as the Miners are 21-4 in C-USA regular season games when outrebounding opponents.
UTEP is 18-3 all-time in C-USA home games, and 34-5 in conference home games over the last five seasons. This season, the Miners are yielding an average of 62.5 ppg in C-USA home games, with only one team, Southern Mississippi, tallying over 66 points against the Miners. The defense is significant as UAB brings in a tough offense and one that just put up 91 points at SMU and leads the conference in shooting. The Miners have their confidence back and they get yet another home victory on Wednesday.
Play UTEP Miners 1 Unit
SEBASTIAN
20* Hofstra
50* Utah Jazz
100* Texas A & M
300* Cleveland (nba)
100* Insider...Richmond
Iceman
3* Blue Jackets
3G
NBA
5*Atlanta Hawks
NCAA
5*Old Dominion
5*Alabama
4*Purdue
Ats Lock
Financial
4 Units - Kentucky
3 Units - George Washington - Tulsa
Texas Sports Wire
5* Kentucky
4* Richmond
3* Texas A&m - Jazz
WAYNE ROOT
Chairman - Florida St
Millionaire - DePaul
No Limit - Ole Miss
Insiders Circle - Colorado
Billionaire - Clemson
Paul Leiner
50* NBA Over 212 NO/Phx
10* CBB Over 134 Kansas/Iowa State
5* CBB Houston -8
Gina
Denver Nuggets (33-23) at Seattle SuperSonics (15-41)
The Nuggets have won two straight and four of the last five meetings against the lowly SuperSonics, who have dropped five of its last seven games. However, The Nuggets are currently playing below par. Denver has lost three straight and nine of its last 13 games on the road, a woeful 11-16 on the road this season. Go with Seattle tonight at KeyArena to cover the spread in a close battle. The Sonics have covered the spread in four of their last five games.
Seattle SuperSonics
Toronto Raptors - 11
Seattle SuperSonics + 8½
Johnny Guild
Florida Gators + 1.5
Tulsa Golden Hurricane + 18.5
Minnesota Timberwolves (12-43) at Toronto Raptors (31-24)
The struggling Timberwolves are 2-7 in their last 9 games, just 12-43 this season and have played horrible away from home, one win in its last 20, a pitiable 2-23 thus far this season.
The Timberwolves surprisingly beat the Jazz on Tuesday, 111-100, at Target Center, but won't be home tonight. Minnesota’ poor performance on the road has been a fiasco. Take the Raptors tonight at Air Canada Centre to outscore the Wolves, who are averaging 93.7 points per game. The Timberwolves have lost the last seven clashes against Toronto and is 1-5 both straight up and against the spread in the last 6 meetings versus the Raptors in Toronto.
Toronto Raptors - 12
Josh Dean
15* Utah -1
15* Iowa St. +12.5
5* Charlotte +7.5
FREE B: TEXAS A&M
Malinsky 6* top of the ticket
UNDER 191.5 Boston/Cleveland
To go to a 6* rating in the NBA means that we must have both performance levels and consistency levels that we can trust. It is rare, but we get that here, and with part of the concept coming from a positive sub-category of our season portfolio we will not hesitate to pull the trigger.
We have had a great deal of success playing Boston Under this season, with the marketplace never fully accepting that the Celtics were at their strongest on that end of the court, as visions of Pierce-Allen-Garnett offensive showcases filled their heads. The chemistry has been outstanding on the defensive end, and pacing of the games has been slow, as it should be. When you have great half-court offensive talents you are supposed to get into your sets whenever possible, and when you have some aging veterans you also do not need to be pushing the pace more than is necessary during the regular season. In Tom Thibodeau they have arguably the MVA (Most Valuable Assistant) on any coaching staff in the league, with his ability to create defensive game plans made easier by having a corps of veterans that understands them. It all adds up to excellent value in general for tonight’s purpose, but recent events have made it even better.
Boston got caught up in a pair of track meets at Golden State and Denver immediately after the All Star break, which badly skews both the numbers and the perceptions. It was a difficult scheduling sequence, with little time to prepare for the Warriors and none for the Nuggets, and the final scores showed. But what did it set up for us? An easy 4* Under at Phoenix on Friday, an easy 4* Side at Portland on Sunday, and another easy 4* Under against the Clippers on Monday. Now they return to their home court for the first time since February 13, and they do it in a setting that calls for defense once again – the legs are going to still be heavy off of that western tour, but at least there was a day of film study to prepare for LeBron James and company.
Cleveland provides the ideal foil here, both in terms of matchups and value. The Cavaliers have played a pair of Over’s in the first two games since adding Ben Wallace and others, but that creates a misleading impression. The Cavaliers were in against the weak defenses and uptempo styles of Milwaukee and Memphis, which created much different flows from what we will project going forward. As we expected to see the defense was solid, allowing 42.9 percent shooting in those games, but they fell at Milwaukee, and created a higher final score, because the Bucks were 32-37 from the free throw line last night. Now for tonight.
The Cavaliers are not expecting Zydrunas Ilgauskas to be able to go because of a respiratory infection, and with that being the case, James is surrounded by the most offensively inept starting lineup in the NBA – Wallace, Anderson Varejao, Delonte West and Devin Brown. Those other four combined for 30 points in 107 minutes last night. But that is an outstanding defensive group, particularly in the front-court. And while Wally Szczerbiak will be a tremendous offensive force off of the bench, we do not fear him in that regard here. Szczerbiak turns 31 next week, and the 38 minutes he played last night were his season high. That taxes him in a back-to-back situation, particularly after he played 32 vs. Memphis on Sunday. So there are no easy counters anywhere for Cleveland offensively against this class of defense, but there is the ability to get down and guard the Celtics, and turn it into a battle that way. That is what we expect to see – a physical grinder of a game that will resemble playoff time, with a slow tempo and points not easy to come by.
Balfe
Sixers +2
Hornets -3
Iowa St +12
ETHAN Law
1* UNC Wil
1* Georgia
1* George Washington
1* UTEP
1.5* (Underdog GOM) Ole Miss
Akmens
NHL
Sharks u 5
NBA
Cavs u 194
College
W Kentucky u 136
Wyoming o 140.5
W Virginia u 141
Larry Ness' Oddsmaker's Error-CBB
My Oddsmaker's Error is on UTEP at 9:00 ET. Although UAB (and likely Houston) still hold out hopes of getting an at-large bid, just like last year, the only C-USA school heading to the "Big Dance" will be Memphis (unless someone knocks off the Tigers in the C-USA tourney, which is unlikely). Former Indiana head coach Mike Davis has his team at 19 wins in his second year at Birmingham and he's had to overcome the loss of two key starters. PG Delaney (8.8-5.5-5.0) went out after just four games, while the 6-9 Sharpe (14.2-6.8) was lost after just 12 games.Following Davis from Indiana was swingman Vaden (21.0-3.5-2.5) and after sitting out LY, he's been the Blazers' best player TY. The return of guard Toney (12.4), who's now played the last 11 games, has been big for UAB, as he joins a combo of Johnson and Berrios (about nine PPG) in the backcourt. The frontcourt is a rotation of the 6-8 Kinnard (11.3-6.9), the 6-7 Huffman (7.6-6.1), the 6-8 Crawford (4.6) and the 6-9 Holmes (4.4-3.2). The Blazers beat UTEP in Birmingham by 81-73 but the Miners shot just 38 percent in that game, including a sad 4-of-18 from three-point range. At home, UTEP has gone 12-1 this year, losing only to New Mexico, 86-85 in OT on Jan 2. The Miners have one of the nation's best scorers in Jackson (24.3-5.6) and expect him and his teammates to shoot much better this time around. Kilgore (12.2-4.5-4.8) is an excellent PG and freshman guard Culpepper has been coming off the bench while averaging 12.8 PPG. The frontcourt is nothing special with the 6-9 Ramalho (6.2-4.8), the 6-9 Watts (5.7-4.2), the 6-11 Britten (3.8) and the 6-10 Sampson (3,4-3.1) being the biggest contributors. However, against UAB, that';s not much of a concern. There is not much difference between these teams and here at home, where it's lost just ONE of 13 games this year, UTEP is being greatly undervalued by the linemakers.
Oddsmaker's Error on UTEP.
BeatYourBookie.com
NCAA Basketball
100* Play Miami (+8.5) over Clemson
Miami is 10-1 ATS coming off a win this season
Miami is 25-12 ATS in February road games since 1997
Miami is 6-1 SU vs. Clemson since 1997
50* Play Florida State (+2) over N.C. State
N.C. State is 8-17 ATS in home games the last 2 seasons
N.C. State is 2-8 ATS coming off a loss this season
N.C. State is 3-10 ATS vs. ACC Opponents this season
NBA Basketball
50* Play Toronto (-12.5) over Minnesota
Toronto is 5-0 SU & ATS vs. Minnesota the last 3 seasons
Toronto is 23-8 ATS in the month of February the last 3 seasons
Dennis Hill
Kansas
Va Comonwealth
New Orleans NBA
Odds on Sports
NBA
Minnesota +11.5
Orlando -1
L.A. Clippers -2
Seattle +8.5
Under 202 Sac/Atl
Over 191.5 Clev/Boston
Under 208.5 Ind/Chicago
NCAA Hoops
Utah -4.5
Over 141.5 Aub/Miss st.
Over 122 N.Iowa/Ind st.