Sports Unlimited
5* NY Jets Over
Craig Davis
30 Dime Stanford Cardinal
30 Dime Sacramento Kings
Lenny Del Genio
Oklahoma St. -10
With the football team's annual Bedlam rivalry with Oklahoma on deck, most in Stillwater have likely neglected the Cowboys 3-0 start in basketball, winning every game by double digits. We have not. Nor have we failed to notice the fact that DePaul lost outright to Western Carolina last week by five as 8.5-point chalk. Don't mind laying the double digit number here despite this being the Pokes' first lined game. After all, they were 12-2 ATS as a favorite last season and are 23-5 ATS when laying points for HC Travis Ford, who is also 13-3 vs. the number as a neutral court favorite in his coaching career. After taking OSU to the NCAA Tournament his first two years in Stillwater, Ford finally has the recruits to fit his style of play. On the other hand, we don't really like the hire of Oliver Purnell at DePaul. Purnell's teams were known for taking ill-advised shots at Clemson, so a poor shooting team like the Blue Demons figures to do even worse considering they lack the ability to rebound that Purnell's Tigers teams. This is a total rebuilding project with DePaul having won just one Big East game the last two seasons and since 1/26/08, they've gone 19-57 SU overall including 24 consecutive league losses. Oklahoma State is our Turkey Day AFTERNOON CBB Winner.
PPP
2% Lions
2% Saints
2% Jets
2% Texas
3% Murray State +1
4% Temple -4.5
Larry Ness
10* Oklahoma State
Sports Unlimited
5* NY Jets Over
SOMEONE PUT THIS UP WRONG
SHOULD BE-SORRY
NY JETS UNDER
Andy Iskoe
Bengals at Jets
Pick: Over 42.5
The Jets' defense, while better than average, has not played at the same level as it did in 2009 and the most recent evidence of this came last week when they allowed Houston to come back in the fourth quarter, down 23-7, to take a late 27-23 lead before the offense rallied the Jets to a 30-27 victory. Cincinnati's defense a strength last season in their march to the AFC North title has been a weakness this season. Statistically, the Bengals have played 5 games this season against "Class A" teams those teams currently with records more than 2 games above .500. 4 of those 5 have gone OVER the Total with an average of 50.2 total points per game in the 5. The Jets' profile is even better. In 5 games against "Class C" teams those with current records more than 2 games below .500 -- the Jets have gone OVER in all 5 games which have averaged 46.8 total points per game.
Marc Lawrence
Texas 3.5
What a difference a year makes! Last season at this time, the Horns were poised to claim the Big 12 crown (which they did) and make a run at the national championship while the Aggies were hoping that their six wins could secure (which it did) a minor bowl bid. While A&M doesn't have to deal with Colt McCoy this season, they do have to face a Texas squad that needs this one to become bowl eligible and has won and covered six of the last seven in this series in Austin. They must also do it in the rare role of favorite. The Longhorns have been favored in each of the previous 11 meetings, including a three-touchdown choice last season in College Station and as 35.5-point chalk just two years ago on this field. This role change is even too much for the improving Aggies, who, by the way, are just 1-11 ATS in weekday road games and 1-3 ATS after battling Nebraska. The Horns have never been home for the Holidays since Mack Brown took over the program in 1998 and his 11-1 SU and 10-2 ATS mark in 'Last Home Games' at Texas, including 5-0 SU and ATS as a dog or favorite of less than 13 points, suggests they won't gift-wrap this one for the surging Aggies. Texas' 4-1 ATS mark as weekday dogs is also reassuring but the bottom line is that the Horns need it like blood and they get it. Grab the points with Bevo tonight. We recommend a 4-unit play on Texas.
Evan Altemus
1* NY Jets -8.5
Cincinnati really suffered a huge blow last week in a horrible home loss to Buffalo. The Bengals were dominating that game and leading by double digits until they completely fell apart and let the Bills beat them by 18 points. In fact, after Cincinnati jumped out to a 28-7 lead in the 2nd quarter, Buffalo went on to outscore them 42-3 for the rest of the game. The Bengals also suffered bad injuries to their secondary in that game and were unable to stop the Bills passing attack at all. That game seems to have put the final dagger in their season after several tough losses. Now they have to travel on a short week and play a Jets team coming off of a huge last second win against Houston. The Jets also gave up a big lead in that game, but they got a big emotional boost with the way they were able to get a game winning touchdown in the final seconds. New York really hasn't looked dominant in their last six games, but they have been resilient against some tougher than expected opponents on the road. New York has a huge advantage playing this game at home on a short week, especially given the way Cincinnati lost their last game and with the Jets won their game. Carson Palmer is banged up and didn't practice on Monday, and the Bengals had to bring in newly signed defensive players to fill spots left by injuries on Sunday. This spread is high, but I expect the Jets to get a blowout home win.
Nick "BookieKiller" Parsons
10* Colorado / Edmonton Under 6
For a number of different reasons I believe the value in this contest is on the "under":
The Avs have seen the total go "under" the number in just 5 of 20 to start the year, including in just 3 of 10 on the road; last night they lost 4-2 to the Canucks, the total actually "pushing" in that one.
Keep in mind that not only has Colorado seen the total go "under" the number in 4 of its last 6 on the road in Edmonton, but that over the last 2-seasons it has in fact also seen the total dip below the posted number in 8 of 15 road games where the total is 6 or more; also in 12 of 23 after playing to 3 or more consecutive "overs" (before last night's "push" on the total, this team had played to 4 consecutive "overs"; which make this trend even stronger for us this evening).
On the other side of the ice: The Oilers have seen the total go "under" the number in 7 of 19, including in 4 of 8 in front of the home town crowd; on the 23rd they lost in Phoenix 5-0.
Over the last 2-seasons Edmonton has seen the total go "under" the number in 6 of 8 home games where the total is 6 or more; also in 36 of 60 after a loss by 2 goals or more in its previous game (which means that after a sub-par effort, this team comes out fired up in its next game, and while it wont always win, it definitely plays tighter on the defensive side of the puck).
Bottom line: I look for backup Peter Budaj to have a big game tonight in the tail end of this back to back scenario; that said, I expect his offense to be tired tonight.
Edmonton will need to take advantage of this situation, but I believe to do that it will have to tighten up on the defensive end; and I expect we'll see that game-plan implemented tonight; 10* "TOTAL OF THE WEEK" on the UNDER!
BEN BURNS
10* MAIN EVENT TEXAS +3