Atlantic 10 Betting Predictions - St. Bonaventure vs. #17 Temple
by Tim Furious
The Temple Owls are going to be a sneaky team when it comes to March Madness betting, and their dominance in the Atlantic 10 Conference should be just the beginning of good things to come. With a 14-2 SU record in the conference, Temple won the A-10 regular season title, but their sights are rightfully set on repeating as conference champions. To get there, they’ll have to beat a team named after a bunch of girls.
St. Bonaventure went just 7-9 SU in conference play, and are an ugly 0-10 SU when playing Temple. The fact that they’re 2-8 ATS against Temple during that run should tell you all you really need to know, and overcoming one of the best defenses in the country is going to be a huge feat for St. Bonaventure.
The Bonnies are 4-2 ATS and 5-1 SU in their last 6 games, but the A-10 Conference is littered with crap shoot teams and St. Bonaventure is one of them. Against Temple, Xavier and Dayton, they’ve been run out of the gym. The last time they played Temple, over three weeks ago, they lost 55-73 with a +4.0 point betting line to cover.
St. Bonaventure Bonnies (15-15) vs. #17 Temple Owls (26-5)
Friday, March 12th --- Boardwalk Hall --- 12:00pm EST
NCAAB Betting Line: Temple -9.5 (125)
Temple is undefeated in their past seven games, and that’s certainly a streak that you can expect to continue. They’re also 6-1 ATS in their past 7 games and their astounding efforts against St. Bonaventure should only affirm their place atop the Atlantic 10 Conference.
As pointed out earlier, Temple boasts one of the stingiest defenses in the league. They rank fourth overall with just 56.8 points allowed per game. While I’m sure they’d love to get more out of their scoring, which ranks 255th in the country with 65.4 points per game, they know who and what they are as a team. They lock you down and strangle you to death (to put it mildly).
The A-10 Tournament will be all business for Temple, which actually elected not to cut down the nets when they won the regular season title. So, in true fashion, I expect this game to go in the UNDER while Temple just frustrates St. Bonaventure as they exit the tournament with their skirts tied in knots.
