Category: Basketball

70-62-2 on NCAAB last season up 8.95 units

7-9-1 this season down 1.44 units

Who knows what the “petty” NCAA will do with James Wiseman, but I still like Memphis to win by double digits tonight.

For those that don’t know, a teaser allows you to buy points across multiple games. All the games have to win like a parlay. A tie counts as a loss. See in my teaser below, I got 3 games that were at a half point so I can’t push and lose. You are never supposed to buy across 0 in a teaser. So if you do a 6 point teaser of a team at -2 and get them to +4. You are losing value on the 0 and the 4. That’s two numbers that you still lose on/can’t happen. Parlays are simple. You win them all, you get a slightly bigger payout than if you bet them all by themselves, but if one loses. You lose.

St. Johns -4.5/Old Dominion -5.5/Memphis -10.5 Teaser (bought 6 points) risking 5 units to win 6 units. Colombia is 1-3 with a win against Binghamton. St. Johns is 3-1 coming off a loss to Vermont. The Red Storm will be ready to play tonight against the less athletic Colombia. Old Dominion will beat James Madison. JMU just lost to George Mason by 13. ODU is better than George Mason this season. Aaron Carver and Xavier Green can ball out for ODU. Memphis goes up against a Little Rock team that is playing a little better than they did last year. Memphis has too much talent for Little Rock. The Tigers have too much size at home, even without Wiseman.

Old Dominion/Boston College/Colorado State/Saint Mary’s CA Parlay risking 5 units to win 4.95 units. Nik Popovic and Boston College are coming off of a lose to Belmont. They will be ready to play against Eastern Washington. EWU lost to St. Louis by 22. Colorado State is 3-1 with a loss to Duke. Nico Carvacho will be the biggest player on the court and he has some skills for someone his size. Saint Mary’s lost to a Winthrop team that Fresno State beat. The Gaels know this and come ready to play.

Arkansas State +11.5 at -110 for 3 units. Arkansas State does have a size advantage on the wings and a little more depth than Colorado State. I expect Colorado State to win at home, but it could be close. J.J. Matthews and Marquis Eaton could cause some problems for the Rams. A hedge out of my parlay of sorts. Still like the parlay, but mitigating risk here.

70-62-2 on NCAAB last season up 8.95 units

6-8-1 this season down 0.41 units

Virginia -14.5 at -115 for 3 units. Virginia has the best scoring defense in the country. They are top-10 in rebounding and not committing personal fouls as well. Mamadi Diakite, Kihei Clark, Braxton Key and Jay Huff are all good players. Virginia is missing key pieces from last year’s championship team, but they are still great at defense. 

Pepperdine +11 at -102 for 2 units. USC is 4-0, but they haven’t played anybody amazing yet. Pepperdine is 3-1 with a loss to Cal. Colbey Ross is a talented guard for the Wave. Pepperdine have beat two NCAA tournament teams already this season. Nick Rakocevic is going to cause problems for the Pepperdine big men, but I like the Wave to keep it close.

70-62-2 on NCAAB last season up 8.95 units

5-8-1 this season down 3.74 units

Kentucky plays their first game since losing to Evansville. Kentucky is a 25 point favorite against a 3-1 Utah Valley team tonight. Evansville plays SMU tonight at home. That SMU matchup and the Willam & Mary/Oklahoma game are they only two matchups of undefeated teams tonight. Oklahoma is favored by 16 against Willam & Mary, but both teams have covered every game this season. Something has to give. The Tribe have two 7-footers in Nathan Knight and Andy Van Vliet. They can cause problems.

Auburn -16 at -120 for 4 units. Auburn is 3-0 at home. Colgate is 0-3 against the spread. The VCU-transfer Samir Doughty is playing well (18.5 / 7 / 2.8) in his senior year at Auburn. Freshman Isaac Okoro can shoot from deep and drive. I watched the Colgate-Clemson and Colgate-Syracuse games, Rapolas Ivanauskas and

Will Rayman are tall big men for Colgate, but Auburn has more athleticism on the wings. Bruce Pearl can use Auburn’s speed and coach around Colgate’s twin towers. Colgate was a tournament team last year that returns their 5 leading scorers. The Raiders will get some easy buckets, but Auburn will figure them out by halftime.

70-62-2 on NCAAB last season up 8.95 units

4-6-1 this season up 0.53 units

Idaho +5 at -110 for 3 units. UC Davis got beat by Loyola by 34 points. Idaho has some talented players like Trevon Allen, Marquell Fraser, Ja’Vary Christmas, and Quinton Forrest. The Red Wolves Classic gets underway in Arkansas with this game. I’ll take the points on a neutral court.

Harvard -9 at -110 for 3 units. This line has opened at -12.5, but heavy betting on Sienna has driven it to 9. I’ll jump in and fade the public and take Harvard to win by double digits. Harvard’s defense will be too much for the Saints.

St Mary’s -20 at -110 for 4 units. St Mary’s were favored by 19 against Winthrop and lost straight up. The Gaels are 0-2 ATS this season, but are favored by 20 against a California State Long Beach team that lost to UCLA by 4. Randy Bennett’s team returned 4 starters from last year’s NCAA tournament team. They will come out firing tonight. Malik Fitts can ball.

70-62-2 on NCAAB last season up 8.95 units

3-5-1 this season up 0.64 units

Will Wade was Shaka Smart’s first hire for VCU in 2009. Wade was an assistant on VCU’s Final Four team in 2011. Wade left the VCU program 4 days after losing to St. Mary’s in the NCAA tournament. Samir Doughty, Malik Crowfield, and De’Riante Jenkins were Wade’s big recruits for VCU. Doughty helped lead Auburn to a final four last year after transferring from VCU once Wade left. Jenkins and Crowfield are seniors and still play for VCU. They will want their revenge tonight.

Wade’s LSU was 25-5 last season, when the FBI came down on him hard for a phone conversation between Wade and former Adidas consultant Christian Dawkins. Wade cusses and says things like “I went to him with a [expletive] strong-ass offer about a month ago. [Expletive] strong.” The phone call was supposedly about Ja’Vonte Smart, who is averaging 11.1 points a game. How Will Wade is still coaching I don’t know. If the FBI can’t stop a coach from cheating, why are they even involved in college basketball?

Both LSU and VCU are loaded with experience. At the start of the season, I would have said VCU will win, but I went to the North Texas game at VCU.. The Rams didn’t play their best game, but they did go on a 20-0 run at one point and won the game. The close win knocked the Rams out of the top 25. LSU are #23. The Siegel Center will be loud and I expect it to be a close game. The teaser below is an emotional hedge of sorts because I want Will Wade to lose and VCU to win.

LSU +8½  / Northern Iowa -4½ / Villanova +6½ Teaser risking 4 units to win 5.45 units. I think the VCU/LSU game will be close. When Shaka Smart and the Longhorns came back to Richmond, Texas won by 4 in 2017. Then VCU won by 1 in Austin last season. These “former coach vs VCU” games are usually close. Villanova looked great against Army and I expect them to put up enough points to keep it close and prolly win against Ohio State. Northern Iowa will beat Cal State at home.

Syracuse -10.5 at -105 for 4 units. The Orange will like playing Colgate after losing to Virginia. UVA allowed Syracuse to score 34 points. Colgate will have a harder time on defense. Clemson beat Colgate by 13. I expect an even bigger win here for Cuse.

 

 

 

Coby White set the Bulls’ record for 3’s in the 4th Quarter with 7 last night. Roy Williams went to the game because White had been in a shooting slump. Coach Calipari watched his Kentucky Wildcats lost to Evansville. Evansville is coached by Walter McCarty. McCarty won the 1996 National Championship with Kentucky and was drafted 19th overall by the Knicks that year.

"I love you! Our relationship goes past basketball."@CobyWhite (23 PTS in 4Q) shares a moment with his college coach Roy Williams after setting a @chicagobulls record with 7 threes made in a quarter! #NBARooks pic.twitter.com/jwFXwavAnx

— NBA (@NBA) November 13, 2019

Roy watched one of his former players win and praise him, while Coach Calipari watched his current players lose to Evansville. This was supposed to be the year for Kentucky because they add their normal stellar recruiting class, plus a myriad of returning players. Losing to Evansville is not a good sign. No disrespect to the Purple Aces.

North Carolina has 5 top-50 recruits coming in in 2020. Kentucky only has 4. What a shame. Duke’s class is stacked with 6 top 50 recruits.

61-53-2 on NBA in 2017/18 up 9.28 units

30-28-2 on NBA in 2018/19 up 4.16 units 

6-6 on NBA in 2019/20 down 1.31 units

76ers +2 at -110 for 3 units. THE RAUL NETO RETURN GAME we have all been waiting for.

 

Donovan Mitchell wore his definition of a rookie hoodie that Ben Simmons didn’t “fit”. Simmons won NBA Rookie of the Year in his 2nd season because he didn’t play a game in his first season. 76ers are one of the best rebounding teams in the league. Ed Davis is out for Utah, which means Philly should win the battle in the paint against Gobert. 76ers have covered in every game Embiid has played. Jazz are 2-5 ATS.

70-62-2 on NCAAB last season up 8.95 units

1-5-1 this season down 4.05 units 

Clemson will never be good at basketball I guess. Dook won. Kentucky won. I won my big unit play on William & Mary and lost everything else. Old Dominion was close, then got down a lot, and the pushed. My VCU team looked good at home, but not great. More plays tonight..

Boston College at -170 for 5 units. Nik Popovic is the consistent big man that can get some crafty, easy points for Boston College tonight. Derryck Thornton, the transfer from Duke and Southern California will help out BC in the backcourt. Jay Heath is a Washington DC point guard that should be able to play a lot of minutes in his freshman year for the Eagles. Boston College wins the battle in the paint and wins the game. Wake Forest does have some talented freshman and Brandon Childress, but may need some more time to gel.

South Carolina -19 at -115 for 2 units. North Alabama had two good players last season and they lost one, Kedarius Smith. Jamari Blackmon of Hoover High (remember MTV) is a solid sophomore, but South Carolina should win by a lot. Keyshawn Bryant, A.J. Lawson, and Maik Kotsar will have to step up this season with 4 or 5 notable departures for the Gamecocks. Jermaine Couisnard is a redshirt freshman from Chicago that could be a great player for South Carolina. He can get hot. All in all, South Carolina has more talent and should be able to shut down Blackmon and North Alabama.

61-53-2 on NBA in 2017/18 up 9.28 units

30-28-2 on NBA in 2018/19 up 4.16 units 

5-5 on NBA in 2019/20 down 0.38 units

Thunder -145 for 3 units. SGA and Darius Bazley went off for the Thunder against the Pelicans. The Magic have struggled on the road. The Magic have struggled to score points. Points are important in basketball. Nerleans Noel, Chris Paul, and Danilo Gallinari have played well this season. Not the roster I thought the Thunder would have, but they have actually looked good this season. The Magic have not.

Spurs -220 for 3 units. John Collins of the Hawks has been suspended for 25 games because of PEDs. Trae Young seems like he is returning, but I doubt he plays his full minutes. DeRozan and Aldrige should be able to score against the Collins-less Hawks team. Spurs have only lost to the LA teams this season, I like them to take care of business, like they have been doing for two decades, tonight.