Top of the Ticket

New Orleans Privateers(+11.5) over TULANE GREEN WAVE

4* #551 NEW ORLEANS over TULANE

They have put the cart way ahead of the horse in this one, in a typical inner-city Rivalry in which easy wins are difficult come by. In the last nine meetings the line has never been higher than -8 either way, and in six of those games the line was -2.5 or lower. In seven of the games New Orleans won outright, including taking the last three by a combined 24 points. So have either the Privateers fallen that hard, or the Green Wave made such improvements, to make this the proper price range? We don?t see it. Tulane is not going to dominate many opponents. The Green Wave have a decent back-court by are not imposing at all in the paint, which explains an awful -49 rebounding deficit so far. They have lost the battle of the boards in every game, including that 82-55 drubbing of lowly Alabama State, and you do not build many margins when you are not getting easy points around the basket, or controlling the glass. And they also do not push the tempo to help build margins, averaging just 62 points through their first five lined games. New Orleans is also going to bring the preferred pace to cash a ticket in this range ? the Privateers have not allowed an opponent to reach 70 points yet, including road trips to Georgia and N. C. State. Georgia transfer Billy Humphrey has fit well into this lineup and is the best go-to scorer on the court (18.0 ppg), and local product Charles Carmouche, the only player from the city starting for either team, is becoming a nice compliment in the back-court, averaging 12.8. Those two provide the punch to be able to score through the back-door, should that ne necessary, but we do not see it ever getting that far. Look for an intense struggle at a slow pace between these rivals that makes this pointspread a mountain to overcome.