BEST BET OF THE DAY
Take Indiana Hoosiers (7-6) +13vs. Ohio St. Buckeyes (10-4)
Location:* Value City Arena - Columbus, OH** Time 8:30pm EST
TELEVISION:* BIG 10 NETWORK
EVALUATION:** Both of these teams have lost their top scorers for the season, with Evan Turner (OSU) being injured 7 games ago against Eastern Michigan, and Maurice Creek (IU) being injured just two games ago against Bryant.* Turner is going to be missed a lot more now that the BIG 10 schedule has begun for the Buckeyes who have already lost two road games in the conference to Wisconsin and Michigan.* Ohio St. had been rolling in their early non-conference schedule, and now they have lost half their games since Turner's injury (3-3), also the Buckeyes have only been scoring just under 64 ppg without Turner. * Indiana head coach Tom Crean has to be happy the way his Hoosiers have been playing so far, as they went .500 play in their non-conference schedule, and opened BIG 10 conference play with a big win over Michigan at home.* The upside for the Hoosiers is that they have scored at least 65 points in every game they have played this season, which means if this holds up that the Buckeyes have to put up over 80 points to cover this number.** They Buckeyes are capable of this, they have only put up over 80 points 4 times this year, and lets say those teams are no where near the competitive level that Indiana plays at.* Against better competition this year the Buckeyes have only been scoring about 64.4 ppg against teams such as North Carolina, California, Butler, Wisconsin, and Michigan.* * Now we are not putting Indiana in those teams league, but their huge win over the surging Pittsburgh Panthers shows that Indiana can play good basketball against top competition.* Only two teams have beaten the Hoosiers by over 14 points and both teams were Top 25 teams when they played.* Mississippi won by 18, and Kentucky smacked the Hoosiers 90-63 back on 12/12/09.* The only thing we don't like, is that Indiana has played a majority of their games at home this year, and this is only their 5th game away from the Assembly Hall in Bloomington.* In those 5 road games, the Hoosiers lost that game to Mississippi in the San Juan, Puerto Rico shootout.* They also lost to George Mason by 3 in that same tournament, and they sandwiched between those two losses a win against Boston University in that same tournament. The Hoosiers then shocked a lot of people with a huge win over Pittsburgh in a Neutral Court game in Madison Square Gardens.* * The Buckeyes are 10-1 SU at the Value City Arena, and are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games. We do expect the Buckeyes to win this game, but we expect it to be closer than 14 points.
PROJECTION:*** Ohio St.* 71** Indiana 67
OTHER BEST BETS:
Take Charlotte (10-3) +12 vs. Tennessee Volunteers (10-2)
LOCATION: Thompson Boiling Arena - Knoxville, TN** Time:* 7:00pm EST
EVALUATION:* This game is all about the Volunteers, and how they are going to handle being shorthanded on the bench and on the court.* Four of Tennessee's players were arrested, and have been suspended indefinetly by HC Bruce Pearl; after a traffic stop and arrest the day after beating a fairly good Memphis team.* Tyler Smith, Cameron Tatum, Melvin Goins, and Brian Williams were those four players and they average 33ppg out of 81 ppg that the Volunteers normally average.* We just don't see how the rest of the Volunteer team is going to make that up.* All four of these men saw substantial playing time and they were all in the top 8 average scorers on this team.* Charlotte had been on a really good non conference schedule run with their only loss coming to Duke prior to the game before Christmas break.* They then lost to Old Dominion in that game before Christmas break 48-81 and came back from Christmas break with a win over Mercer, and a loss to Georgia Tech 67-76.* Charlotte is 3-2 SU on the road, with big wins over Louisville and Hofstra.* What we don't like is those two losses to Duke and Old Dominion were blow outs where they lost by 41 and 33.* We expect Charlotte to show up enthused tonight, and Tennessee to be a little flat with all the turmoil in the program right now.
PROJECTION:* Tennessee 68* Charlotte 63*
SOLIDS:* --------------------------------------Projections:
Tennessee Chattanooga +3 vs. Georgia Southern ____ Chattanooga 69-64
UMASS -15 vs. Fordham _________________________ U MASS 80-57
Appalachian St. -6 vs. The Citadel __________________ App St. 71 - 57
OVER/UNDERS:
OVER 122 Air Force/TCU _______________________ 136
OVER 127James Madison/Old Dominion __________ 142
UNDER 159 ½ Louisville/Providence ________________ 147
Max report NCAA bball
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