Talkin' Totals
Gamblers can sometimes be left frustrated in trying to wager on totals in college basketball. That’s because some books – particularly those of the offshore variety -- are hesitant to provide totals for all games, especially in non-televised contests between mid-major programs.
Nevertheless, there are still winners out there to be cashed, and you can always count on the televised games having numbers, although they sometimes don’t get posted until a few hours before tip-off.
With that in mind, let’s discuss a few teams that have shown a propensity for going either ‘over’ or ‘under’ their respective totals.
Rice has seen the ‘under’ cash at a frenetic clip all season long. In fact, the ‘under’ owns a 14-2 record when the Owls take the court.
Willis Wilson’s team lost one of the nation’s top scorers in Morris Almond, who was a first-round draft pick by Detroit. Without Almond, Rice struggles to score, as evidenced by its eight-game losing streak that has resulted in eight consecutive ‘unders’ and only one scoring output of 60. (By the way, though, the Owls are 6-2-1 versus the number in their last nine games.)
Stanford is another squad that’s seen ‘unders’ galore. The Cardinal have watched the ‘under’ go 13-2 overall.
Unlike Rice, which has seen an abundance of ‘unders’ due to its offensive ineptitude, Stanford can credit itself for a propensity of ‘unders.’ The Cardinal has held seven of the last 10 foes to 52 points or less.
There’s a reason why Drake is off to a 17-1 start and atop of the Missouri Valley Conference. That reason is lockdown defense that’s resulted in an outstanding 10-2 record for the ‘under.’ The Bulldogs have allowed only three teams to score in the 70s with 73 serving as the highest output by an opponent.
A pair of squads (Utah and San Diego St.) have watched the ‘under’ cash at an 11-3 clip, while four schools (Georgia State, Cal Poly-Slo, Samford and Saint Louis) have seen the ‘under’ go 10-3.
Switching gears, George Mason is a team that stands out loud and clear for producing ‘overs.’ To be exact, the Patriots have watched the ‘over’ cash tickets at a 12-3-1 pace. They have scored 80 points or more in four consecutive games and the ‘over’ is on a 10-1 run in their last 11 outings.
Dayton saw the ‘under’ cash for the first time all season last night in a blowout loss to Xavier. Nevertheless, the ‘over’ is 9-1-1 for the Flyers, who play Saturday at Richmond.
Other teams cashing lots of ‘overs’ include East Carolina (8-1-1), Boise St. (11-3), UMass (10-3), Towson (9-3), UConn (10-4), Austin Peay (10-4), Creighton (10-4), Boston College (8-3), UTEP (8-3) and Troy (8-3).
VegasInsider.com