Big East Show Down: Louisville -2 vs WVU (138)
ESPN: 7pm
Louisville (57th sagarin)
10-4
4-8 ats
0/u 4-8
West Virginia: (19th sagarin)
11-3
5-3 ats
0/u 3-5
open: louisville -3.5
consensus: 60.5% on the cardinals
Louisville has been a good bit worse than the 'experts' expected in the 07/08 season. The cardinals started the season ranked #6 in each of the major polls and now find themselves outside of the top 25 in each. Louis has now won 5 of their last 6, but none of the wins were all that impressive unless you still like the kentucky wildcats a bit. overall, louisville probably looked best in their 2 point loss to BYU in late november; a game that big derrick caracter dominated. this team has hit the under in 4 of the last 5 primarily due to a defense that ranks as one of the nations best in fg% defenses. The home team will start 3 guys that average over 7 boards a game and over 10 points a contest. when on defense this team i led by the shot blocking of clark who averages over 2 a game and the quick hands of smith who has had 4 steals in 2 of their last 4 contest. this team believes in pressure and you have to be a disciplined offense to hurt them.
Something will have to give tonight as the mountaineers come in with one of the top 15 offenses in the nation and a team that rarely turns the ball over (11.5 per game, 10th nationally). west virginia turned in their best performance of the year this past weekend when they beat up marquette pretty good. in that contest they hit 50% from 3 and really controled the game even when the score was close. where the wvu squad is likely to struggle is on the boards, they just havent been great at keeping their opposition off the glass. This squad was able to our rebound marquette and they helped them to their ncaa resume building win, but i dont think they'll get the advantage on the glass tonight.
The big news is the health of Louisville. Palacios seems to be back to form and thats a big lift for this team that had huge expectations in the pre-season. these two teams seem to be fairly evenly matched and will likely need all the home wins they can get while battling, in a tough conference, for seeing in the big-east tourney. at the end of the year, these each could be top 25 teams and a win here will likely go down as a quality win for one of these programs in march. these two teams have started slowly in some of their bigger games and then really busted open a bit more in the 2nd half. im looking for the defenses to come out intense and keep the scoring fairly low to start the contest.
my plays here are under 65 1h, louis -2 for the game
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Originally Posted by louisvillekid
