Ron Raymond
COL (+120) vs PHO
Taking a flyer on the dog in this spot, as Budaj is 6-2 SU vs. the Coyotes and they are 8-6-1 SU in their last 15 trips to the desert. When COLORADO team played as a Road team - Total is 5.5 - After a non division game - Coming off a 3 game winning streak; The Avalanche are 9-3 SU in this spot.
Prediction: Colorado 3 Phoenix 2
Larry Ness
Middle Tennessee State @ North Texas
PICK: North Texas
Middle Tennessee State and North Texas close out 2008 with a late afternoon in Denton, Texas. Many people felt that with all five starters returning from LY's 17-15 team, including preseason p-o-y pick Desmond Yates, that the Blue Raiders, at least on paper, were the SBC's best team. I'm not so sure that will be the case TY, although three of the team's losses so far, have come against Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Houston. MTSU did win its conference home opener (81-53 over Troy) and will take a three-game winning streak into tonight's game at the Super Pit. North Texas comes in 8-4 but off back-to-back losses. Both teams are guard-oriented, as the 6-7 Yates (18.5-5.4) is MTSU's lone inside player (albeit a very good one) of note. The rest of the starting-five are guards, with Green ((12.8) and Kanaskie (10.5-4.7-5.2) leading the way. Joining those three in the starting lineup are Johnson (7.2-3.8-4.2) and O'Neil (5.7-3.5), who is fully recovered from an injury which saw him miss all of last year, save the team's first game. JUCO swingman Haddock (8.0-5.4) has been a nice help to Yates in the frontcourt. North Texas starts three guards, White (13.2), Thompson (12.3) and Dennis (10.6). They are joined by the 6-8 Odufuwa (5.9-7.5) and the 6-7 Hogans (5.8-4.1) but the 6-7 Tramiel (9.3-5.6) may be the team's best inside player. Guard Johnson (10.8) doesn't usually start but he gives North Texas four double-digit scorers. Few teams much like playing a road game on New Year's Eve (day or night) and I think that gives the edge here to North Texas and let's not forget, the Mean Green have won 20 games or more the last two seasons (20 LY and 23 the year before that. Take the home team.
Jack Jones
LA Lafayette +17
The real reason I like this game is that if you look at the records the spread looks pretty accurate, but if you dig deeper into the schedule you will find that LSU’s has been pretty soft while Lafayette has been beaten by teams like Tennessee. Plus, the Ragin Cajuns have had to deal with their leading scorer Travis Bureau being out with a groin injury. You have to wonder just how serious the Tigers are going to take this game since it’s New Year’s Even and they will most likely be looking past the weaker team. Lafayette will have more to prove since they are taking on an in-state rival.
Wyoming +12.5
The Cowboys are an impressive 11-2 on the year, but have one big hickey on their resume when they were throttled by 113-62 by UCLA. This team has bounced back though with a couple of wins over some weaker teams so I don’t think they are suffering any lingering effects. utah State has been solid this year, but laying double digits to a team as good as Wyoming seems like a stretch to me. Brandon Ewing has looked pretty impressive this year with an 18.5 ppg average and 74 assists. He also gets help from Afam Muojeke and Sean Ogirri for 16.1 and 15.2 ppg. If you through in Tyson Johnson’s 14.6 points per game you can see why Wyoming is averaging 82 ppg as a team, which should be good enough to keep them in this game against Utah State.
NC Greensboro +10
This is one of those games that if you look into you are going to hate. UNC Greensboro has been pretty awful this year in going 1-8 while Akron hasn’t been playing too bad in putting up a 7-4 record. Are the Zips really that good though? I don’t think so as they don’t shoot that well from the floor and don’t score a lot of points. Akron does play good defense and should hold the Spartans to a fairly low point total, but covering a double digit spread is going to be a stretch. I see this game ending up somewhere in the 56-50 type of range
Team Who2beton
The Missouri Valley Conference is famous for it’s strong home court bias, and this matchup between the Wichita State Shockers and the Bradley Bears should be no exception.
Wichita State comes into this contest at 6-6, but typically, the Shockers are 5-1 straight up here at home as opposed to 1-5 elsewhere. They are winning their home contests vs. Division I opponents by an average of +8.2 points, good enough to cover this number. They are also seeking revenge for a rare home loss to these Bears the last time they met last season.
Similarly, Bradley is 7-5 SU overall, but they are just 2-4 away from home including 1-3 in their true road games. Furthermore, the lone road win came in a non-lined affair vs. something called Florida Gulf Coast, and they are losing their road games vs. Division I opponents by a poor average of -11.8 points.
Oddly, the visiting team won both meetings between these clubs last season, but look for a return to normalcy tonight.
Pick: Wichita State -5.5