Jeff Nadu:
They don’t turn it over. One other point I want to make about this matchup. This game very much comes down to one individual on Bonaventure. It’s Osun Osunniyi. This guy in nine losses this year, guys for St. Bonaventure. When Osun Osunniyi scores 10 points or less, they’re one in eight in those game. If he scores more than 10 points, they’re very likely to win. It’s that simple. The senior I think, comes to play tonight. I like them to get the job done and beat Virginia in Charlottesville. At any rate, there’s too many points. I think it comes down to the wire. I think they win the game.
TJ Reeves:
Getting the three and a half, the big man loves that. Kyle Hunter interesting that a year ago, just like the NCAA tournament, all played in greater Indianapolis at the different sites. The NIT all played in north Texas on a neutral floor St. Bonaventure’s been the road warriors. They’ve been to Oregon and won. They’ve been to Oklahoma and won. Now. They have to get it done at Virginia quick thought from you if no official play on this.
Kyle Hunter:
Well, I mean, Bonnie’s went to Colorado and Oklahoma, but I mean, the that’s a really good back to back on the road. In fact, I think Oklahoma rates much higher than does Virginia. I think Oklahoma, one of the best teams in this tournament and the fact that they were able to follow up a win at Oklahoma and then go to, or follow up a win at Colorado and then go to Oklahoma and win. Very impressive. And I think that’s a good stat. There it by Jeff on O Sunni won an eight when he doesn’t score 10 points, I think he will get to the double digit number here. This is a veteran team in St. Bonaventure that clearly wants to win this tournament. We don’t question their motivation even a little bit. Virginia has home losses to Navy Clemson, Florida state this year. So there no lock at home Virginia’s style lends itself to bear very close game.
Kyle Hunter:
So three and a half points. I’m very surprised to see them favored by three and a half points. I would’ve thought maybe one, one and a half. Something like that. Pace very slow. I would lean to the under, but this number’s too low for me. St. Bonaventure 51st in the country and momentum coming into this game. They played poor early in the season, but who cares right now? You know, I don’t care that they played bad in November and December. They’re playing very well right now. That’s a good team, a veteran team. I would take the points here as well, pretty strongly to St. Bonaventure for me. And what I think should be a low close game.
Jeff Nadu:
Let’s also remember guys real quick. Virginia has played Mississippi state and north Texas. This is a much tall for all fence to face tonight. Remember also you look at Virginia, they really don’t and can’t really exploit the bench problem that Bonaventure has. Bonaventure has no bench. They’re 358th and bench minutes. Virginia is not far behind. They really can’t go and use that advantage to maybe have more players.
Jeff Nadu:
I also worry about the big for Virginia, Shedrick he’s a sophomore. He struggled this year against guys like Bay cot. Bay cot droped I think 30 on them at one point. I worry about him against these older, more savvy bigs in a guy like Osunniyi. He also foul out in that game against North Texas, only played 11 minutes. Where do they go here if he’s having issues? He’s only played 14 and 11 minutes over the last two games. What that signifies to me is they’re going a little bit smaller. They’re going to the big Cafaro who’s not been as effective. So I have some real concerns. I don’t understand this number, on a neutral court I would put Bonaventure favorite quite honestly. I think they’re a better team.
TJ Reeves:
So that’s what I was going to ask you, was there line movement here or was this always three or three and a half whenever it opened up and it’s remained there for Virginia?
Jeff Nadu:
I think they really just threw three out as kind of that home court. Actually at one point I saw four and it actually came down into three and a half. I just think it’s too many points. If you’re giving me two and a half, I’d lean on by. I just think they win the game. I think they’re a better team on a neutral court and I don’t know how you go against it right now. Virginia’s had trouble all year. As Kyle alluded to, this is a team that lost at home to Navy, I mean a certain other team Wake the teams that they probably shouldn’t lose to at home-
TJ Reeves:
Florida state beat them on a last second shot, right?
Jeff Nadu:
So I have some concerns. And again, hen you look at the eye test guys in these games, when you watch these games, I had Bonaventure on Sunday plus five and a half. You see the look in their eye, they seem just ready to play and Schmitt’s had them kind of buying in. I think they’re a tough team they’ve beat into right now. They’re senior Laden and a group I don’t want to bet again.
TJ Reeves:
We will lock him in on St. Bonaventure with the points. Again, if you’re just seeing us, you’re just joining us, we’ve got the debate going on about the NIT games you see on our rundown there on the left side of the screen, that we will get to some Q&A for the NCAA tournament games as well. But the big man on campus is on St. Bonaventure out of the A 10 NIT quarter final winner goes to Madison square garden next week to play in the NIT semis. We’ll stick with the NIT, there’s another official play coming. It is in the Vanderbilt Xavier game. Again, it’s been an interesting time with coaching changes because Xavier fired their coach. They’ve hired Sean Miller. They’ve got an interim coach coaching here and Xavier is favored by three and a half here in the matchup with Vanderbilt who played very well at the end of the regular season. And it’s obviously now won a couple of games in the NIT. Kyle Hunter with a total of 142 and a half. What is the play for this matchup tonight in Cincinnati?
Kyle Hunter:
Yeah, usually I’m talking about a total, but I’m going to talk about a side in this one, Vanderbilt and Xavier. Paul Scruggs was injured last game for Xavier. He was seen on crutches. He’s their most important player to me. Xavier, a pretty good team, but without Scruggs, they would lose quite a bit. I would doubt that he would be a hundred percent even if he would play here. And if, he’s banged up, I don’t know why Xavier would make him play here and take a chance of re-injuring himself. I think that he would lean toward the doubtful side in this game. The coaching change too during the NIT tournament was really interesting timing. Interim coach, Jonas Hayes got a nice bump from Xavier in that first game against Florida. And maybe this is a conversation for a different day, but Sean Miller guys, I mean, really? Tons of baggage there. I would’ve thought that… That’s not really why we’re here today. It’s just interesting. Vanderbilt may be-
TJ Reeves:
It’s bizarre. Interesting is one way to describe it. It’s bizarre. He’s back there but he’s not coaching in this game tonight, even though he got the head coaching job on the weekend, they’ve still got an interim coach. It’s a weird spot for Xavier right now.
Kyle Hunter:
And he’ll get suspended, I assume for a decent amount of time. I don’t know how long, but Xavier was happy to bring him back. I don’t know that’s going to work as well as they think, we’ll see. But-
TJ Reeves:
You mean being suspended by the NCAA because of the investigation, that’s ongoing, that hit Arizona, which is one of the big reasons why he was ousted at Arizona? You think that will carry over and maybe be, I don’t know, four games, six games, something like that for Xavier? We’ll find out.
Kyle Hunter:
Yeah, I don’t want to predict how many games, but I assume he’ll be suspended in some way. And Xavier seems to be okay with bringing in that baggage and we’ll see how it works. But it makes for a very interesting, weird spot here for the team. They’re playing under an interim coach, they got up for the game against Florida. I don’t know that Florida cared that much about that game. They didn’t look like a team that was really that interested. Vanderbilt is a good team at full strength guys. I think this is a pretty good team that was very shorthanded most of the season. Liam Robbins was out most of the season, Rodney Chapman missed a bunch of games as well. I’m going to say, and maybe this is a hot take, if Vanderbilt had been at full strength the whole season, I think they would’ve either been a NCAA tournament team or at least a bubble team.
Kyle Hunter:
I mean, there’s certainly a quality team and Pipen Jr is the best player on the court. I think this many points getting Vanderbilt here is a good look. And also look at momentum, Vanderbilt’s 31st and has the metrics at momentum. Xavier two 67th. So Vanderbilt’s really playing well, much finer form coming into this game. And I know it doesn’t matter too much, but Vanderbilt did beat Xavier in a scrimmage preseason 77-65 in October in Nashville. I don’t take too much into that, it’s certainly not why I’m betting this game. But here we get three and a half points. I think Stackhouse is a good coach. Xavier, question market coach right now. Scruggs injured, may not play if he does less than 100%. I think Vanderbilt has a good chance of winning this game. So I’m going to take the three and a half and sprinkle it on the money line as well.
TJ Reeves:
How about that? Jeff Nadu any thoughts if no official play on the back to back underdogs here?
Jeff Nadu:
Yeah. One of the chatters has mentioned about… I really want to just touch on the baggage claim. I didn’t mean to use baggage claim, but the claim about baggage, Sean Miller, the individuals saying that most of the coaches in NCAA have baggage. But again, unlike Miller and teams like Louisville, Auburn, Arizona, they were all indicted basically. Individuals involved with this and Sean Miller has a lot of baggage. I mean him and Will Wade have probably more baggage than anyone in the country, it’s that simple. They were all under FBI.
TJ Reeves:
They need one of those push carts, they have so much baggage down at baggage claim. Continue big man.
Jeff Nadu:
Yeah. And again, Book Richardson went to prison over his behavior and he was under the tutelage of Miller who allowed that to happen. So again, Kyle’s dead right, there’s a lot of baggage here. Now Miller’s a good coach. And if Xavier’s willing to forgive that, then so be it. Maybe they think they’re going to turn over new leaf, that’s that. But as far as this game, yeah in both these games, I like the dog. I will say, I think the play maybe in this game though, is to maybe look towards just the team total over for Vanderbilt. I feel like they get into the seventies here. Offensively, towards the end of the season, they were downright magnificent quite honestly. I had them in the SCC tournament against Alabama look good there, beat up Georgia put up 71 in a close game against Kentucky, put up 82 on Belmont. 70 on Dayton’s pretty good quite honestly, with the pace that they play at.
Jeff Nadu:
Scotty Pippen is the best player in the court in this game, it’s that simple. And I think Xavier had some luck of really just getting a team in Cleveland state who took them to the wood shed, almost beat them as 12 point dogs. And then they beat Florida. Who’s probably in a worse spot than they are with an interim coach as well. So they lost eight of 10 towards the end of the season. They didn’t come in looking real good. I think this is where they go down. Without Scruggs, I don’t have them as a favorite. You could see that the number came at three, they quickly bent it down at two and a half. I think Vanderbilt is the better side. I actually have guys Vanderbilt 30 to one to win the NIT. I’m very happy where I’m sitting with this group. I think Vandy and Bonaventure are both win tonight as road team.
TJ Reeves:
Kyle’s got the official play. We lock Kim in on the Vanderbilt Commodore, they are on the road in Cincinnati in this ITT quarter final. Same thing, a winner goes to Madison square garden, to play in the NIT semis here. So we see the two plays that are there. All right. For a few minutes here, let’s get into some questions and answers.
Jeff Nadu:
Let me ask you real quick. One other thing back to Miller. I mean, is anyone actually… How does Miller not get indicted like everyone else in this? Does anyone actually think that he didn’t know directly about what was going on between [inaudible 00:14:22] ?
TJ Reeves:
Let’s go back to what the original controversy and reporting was. If you remember a couple of years ago and I’ll name the name Mark Slayball is the writer for espn.com and he wrote on the record on the most powerful brand names website in sports he ESPN, or at least in this country, he wrote that Sean Miller was on a wire tap offering money to Deandre Ayton or was at least aware of it. To this point, I don’t think the FBI ever produced anything that proved that and Miller came back at ESPN about lawsuit, et cetera. I don’t know.I’m not part of the investigation.
TJ Reeves:
Where does that stand? But that was a bombshell report remember a couple of years ago where he maybe wasn’t going to coach in the Pac-12 tournament because that was coming out. Clearly there is baggage. I’m not seeing the chat that you guys are on our YouTube with the discussion, but anybody that’s arguing that you’re like arguing that the sky is blue or you’re arguing that, what is it? The big man says all other pizza besides Atlantic city pizza is bad pizza. What are we talking about here? There is baggage.
Jeff Nadu:
Look, I don’t have to be talked about as one of the preeminent mafia history writers in America. It’s that simple. My podcast is one of the best. I deal a lot with… No, it’s true. The truth of the matter is I’ve heard a lot of wire taps and you can’t cross examine a tape. Your voice is your voice. I don’t understand how Sean Miller could actually say, “Well, that wasn’t me. I didn’t say it. A hundred thousand I’ve this discuss that I was actually showing some…” It just doesn’t make any sense. Maybe I need to hear the tapes but at the end of the day, lot of baggage. I guess they’re just looking at it and saying, “Well, maybe he’s turned over new leaf.” But again, not a lot of these teams do any due diligence.
Jeff Nadu:
Look at the NFL, there’s certain people that said that with the Watson stuff, like some teams didn’t even ask about it. They just brought him in. So I don’t know, it seems a little backwards. I would’ve went another way. And as Kyle knows, hiring the right coach is really how your program either wins or doesn’t win. It’s that simple. And they made a mistake hiring or firing Chris Mack who ended up not working at Louisville. We’ll see if this works out. He’s a good coach. He’s done a lot of things at Arizona, but it’s some of the things…
TJ Reeves:
If I’m correct. Mack left savior voluntarily. They didn’t fire him just while we’re being clear, he left for the Louisville job and that turns out to be a mistake. By the way, his brother, Archie Miller also took the Rhode Island job on the weekend who had been fired by Indiana and set out this entire season. So both Millers are back in. And there’s some other hires going on at LSU and Mississippi state and Missouri. You mentioned the Cleveland state team, Dennis Gates getting the Missouri job. What is it? Matt, McMahon the Murray state coach is getting the LSU job. The Chattanooga coach is getting the South Carolina jobs. So the carousel is spinning right now here. And Xavier clearly goes back to Sean Miller. Any follow up thought, Kyle, before we get to the Q&A, are we good on that subject?
Kyle Hunter:
It is just unquestionably a large amount of baggage. I think they could have taken one of these mid major coaches that didn’t have the baggage and done at least as well. And if I were them, I would’ve rather done that. As far as the game, one more thought, one of the chatters here, Michael, was mentioning that Xavier’s one and 12 against the spread in their last 13 first halfs. That is true. They’re three and 16 in their last 19 in the first half. So I don’t have any problem with taking Vanderbilt in the first half either. I just think that Vanderbilt has a good shot to win this game. So I’m going to take the plus three and a half for the game and put something on the money line as well.
Jeff Nadu:
That’s a good hire by LSU, by the way. They needed a coach to stabilize that team after the Will Wade stuff. He’s a great coach and he can recruit too. Look at all the kids they’ve had there over the years. I’ve talked about them. Not that he was integral in getting people like, Cannon or whatever. But Joe Morant, Matt McMahon recruited him. So that’s a great hire. They’re going to do great things. They needed the right hire, they got one. Great hire.
TJ Reeves:
Of course, they thought that was the case with Will Wade who had success at Chattanooga and had success at Virginia Commonwealth, and then got into the NCAA mess there as well. It had has been a bizarre coaching carousel where like Will Wade coaches, the SCC tournament loses, the notice of allegations is out and then he’s fired. And yet they’re still playing in a tournament game. It’s crazy that Ben Howland is fired at Mississippi state. They’re in an NIT game tomorrow night and he is still coaching them. If my understanding is correct, he’s still coaching them while he knows he’s out in the NIT to finish out this season. So been a weird time with that. A couple of people also have questions in the chat about the CBI games that’s going on in Daytona beach, Florida on the neutral floor. A chatter is James saying, “Hey opinion on Northern Colorado and North Carolina Wilmington.” Wilmington is the two point favorite on the neutral floor. That game coming up tonight, either of you have any opinion on that or pass it and move on.
Jeff Nadu:
I don’t have much on Wilmington think games. They’re just complete wild affairs. I had the over guess today and it worked out. But Drake blew a huge league. I mean Drake was up 50 to 28 with 18 minutes to go and lost the game. 76-75. This is Wilmington. They outscore Drake 31 to 11 over the final 10 minutes. And Matt and I have talked about Wilmington, this team has kind of a horseshoe. They just find ways to come back and maybe that’s not a horseshoe, maybe they’re just good. I don’t know. I don’t really want to bet into them right now quite honestly. But again guys, I don’t mean to be like up to or anything here. I’m just… Some of these games I think you just need to cool your jets a little bit and there’s no edge here. I think you just go with the luckier team probably right now in Wilmington. But Northern Colorado, I don’t know. What do you expect for of them? They’re a pretty high screen game, maybe an over, I think it’s first to 75 wins.
TJ Reeves:
Kyle again, it’s a neutral floor situation there. It’s not a home game. And another viewer James is asking about Middle Tennessee and the nightcap, playing against Abilene Christians. Same thing on the same neutral floor in Daytona beach. Any thoughts Kyle on either one of those games or you want to move on?
Kyle Hunter:
Both of these teams, Wilmington and Northern Colorado came back from big deficits yesterday. What does that mean for this game? I don’t know. I think I would lean to the over in that Northern Colorado game. The big guys doesn’t play any defense, they never play any defense. Northern Colorado is probably a weaker team than UNC Wilmington, two and a half points laying with Wilmington. I guess I would lean that way but Wilmington has a lot of really close games. So I don’t love that game. And then as far as the Abilene Christian game in Middle Tennessee , this is a neutral court and usually I like to take unders there, but this is a post-season smaller tournament where the over has done well. And nobody’s been having trouble scoring here in Daytona at this ocean center here in Daytona beach, Florida.
Kyle Hunter:
So I don’t know. This is a Middle Tennessee state team that’s been playing all lot slower and playing a lot of unders but we’re 142 or so on the total. I don’t have any strong lean on that. I would lean toward Middle Tennessee in this one minus one and a half. Abilene forcing turnovers and trying to score that way, not very good in the half court at all. Middle Tennessee state, I think is a pretty well coached team, solid team. So I’m going to lean toward Middle Tennessee in that one.
TJ Reeves:
All right. Again, for the audience that’s watching us, we’re here for a few more minutes. If you’re live with us in the 11:00 AM Eastern time hours, I keep saying we’re here at 11:00 AM all the way through the sweet 16 into the elite eight and then the final four, we’ll be here at 11:00 AM. By the way, we haven’t mentioned it on this show, hit the like button there. You see it on side of the screen, subscribe, hit the bell, share this out. The audience numbers continue to soar. Even today, we had a little bit of a hiccup and a little bit of a start, but there’s plenty of you right now that are watching, more of you find out about the show by you guys hitting like you guys hitting subscribe and sharing the show out on social media, et cetera. We’re here giving you the live advice.
TJ Reeves:
Kyle, you were not here for part of this discussion. Big man, I want to go to you first on the Texas Tech, Duke line, where it opened, where it is. I’m noticing here in most places, it’s now either one and a half or one for Texas Tech. Big man what do you make of that? That the lines moved a little bit and we’re still a couple of days away. Might this end up being a pick them game? And if you’re interested in Duke, you might want to go ahead and grab the point, right? Or grab the point and a half now. That’s just my speculation. Big man of thought?
Jeff Nadu:
Yeah. I felt like as long as Tech was a dog, I would be interested. I just feel like this is a pretty bad match for them with, the way that Tech defends. Duke is going to have to make some outside shots. The rest of the teams get at the shop. And look they very much are capable of doing that. It really is going to come down to Duke with, who is able to be the guy outside of Ben Caroll. Is it Keels? Is it Wendell Moore? If he can make what he did all season, it is a dangerous spot. I feel like the over might be interesting here because I think Tech can score against Duke and I think Duke could probably score against Texas tech. So I may be looking at it over. I think it’s first to 70, probably wins. Guys real quick, we don’t have a tangle going on today, right TJ?
TJ Reeves:
Correct.
Jeff Nadu:
I’m just I’m fascinated with, with Matt McMahon, do you guys know that Ja Morant was not recruited at all by anyone in division one. There was one team, South Carolina, and they offered him like a low level scholarship. He didn’t have any services that rated him. Do you know how Murray state found John Moran? They went to a camp to look at someone else. The assistant coach goes to get a snack at the snack booth and sees Morant in some little three on three game and says, “Whoa, this guy’s pretty incredible.” They ended up offering a scholarship. This supposed to show you that these goofy wire services know nothing. They didn’t even rank Morant that’s how bad they are at their job. Go watch the kid for God’s sake. One of the best players in South Carolina basketball history and he’s sticking it to everybody. He’s one of the best young players in the NBA.
TJ Reeves:
And right out of that same region is Steph Curry story with Davidson and Bob McKillup, which was the only division one offer for these Steph Curry at the time. And it’s very well known and well documented that everybody swung and missed on that. And you can say what you want about trying to project how that player will do and what is their body type. And Steph Curry was rail thin, et cetera, but you could see the shooting touch and the son. I’m very big to on the genetics. The son of an NBA player that’s already showing some shooting touch and he only got one division one offer-
Jeff Nadu:
And you know what’s funny about recruiting? The sad thing about recruits is the only ones that get noticed are the big Dunkers. Zion Williamson, who lets be real, the competition he was playing was not good and second of all, he dunked a lot couldn’t dunk until he was a senior. A lot of people don’t know that. We failed to see these kind of kids, these just better basketball players. Look Atty Williamson, has he played for a six week period? I don’t think. Those are the guys that get the love, the guys that could have these great tapes and dunk tapes and stuff. But the Morants, the Currys, you got to look between the lines a little bit.
TJ Reeves:
Agreed. Kyle, any more thoughts on that before we move on to a couple of other things?
Kyle Hunter:
No, that’s fantastic. Because Morant has turned into arguably the most fun player to watch in the NBA. I love watching Ja Morant. And the fact that he couldn’t dunk for so long, and now he certainly has no problem dunking that’s for, sure. Just incredible stuff. And people who can find those under the radar gems are coaches that you want. You find under the radar gems like that, and then pull in some of the state guys that they can get being in a state that’s pretty good in basketball to start with, I think that’s a good hire Certainly.
TJ Reeves:
Another story that you as came to mind too, was John Calapari talking about this a decade ago with Anthony Davis now of the Lakers, AD. That when Anthony Davis, and I believe it was in Indiana, when Anthony Davis was a high school player, he was like a 6’3″ or 6’4″ guard or small forward playing on the perimeter and handling the ball. And I want to say this was his junior year. So they’re in on him, others are in on him. Kentucky’s in on him as a guard. Kentucky stayed in on him. And then he grows like six inches in between his junior and senior year and suddenly becomes Anthony Davis we saw at Kentucky and at the Lakers. He becomes a 6’10”, 6’11” player with the longer arms that can do more in the post, athletic and dunk. Now everybody’s trying to get in on Anthony Davis. And the bottom line is Kentucky had been on him since probably like his sophomore year when he was a guard. You never know.
Jeff Nadu:
That’s amazing. It’s amazing really because they put their chips in with Davis and he ended up growing. Look, also real quick guys, like with Morant or even LaMelo ball, I remember four years people ostracized his father, “He’s a bad father.” To say that his nonsense, do you know how some of… Ja Morant’s father was a teammate of Ray Allen, but his girlfriend got pregnant and he had to go work. And you know what he did, he stayed home and he taught Morant how to play. He’d take him to play older people. And now look at them. These guys, they’re so integral fathers to kids and look at what Morant’s father did, a lot of these guys have to leave their own career. And you mentioned Del Curry, look at what the genetics he had. Look at Seth Curry, will we have Seth Curry without Steph Curry? Just amazing that a lot of the time these guys between the lines are the ones that we need to see, not these big Dunkers. A lot of the time they don’t work out these big time recruits.
TJ Reeves:
Hey, Kyle. Back to what I was asking the big man, line movement obviously in the Texas tech-Duke game, does that say anything to you? We were debating yesterday, I was surprised that it opened not at a pick or Duke favored, but Texas Tech, like open is a three or a two and a half. The line appears to be coming down as you handicapped this, are you waiting to see if you get pick them for Duke here or better?
Kyle Hunter:
I’m not going to bet duke in this game. I don’t know if I’ll take Tech either here. I think tech is probably a little bit better team than is Duke. I actually caught some of the show yesterday on rewind there, re-watching it at the later in the day. I heard Matt saying that Duke kind of the conspiracy theory. Like Coach K we’ll probably get some calls, I can’t totally disagree with that. The NCAA would love to have a coach K around as long as possible. So that does worry me a bit about Texas Tech. I think the public’s going to bet Duke because the public usually bets Duke, right? Sixty something percent of the tickets already on Duke. I don’t know. I think that a tough side-
TJ Reeves:
I guess I asked it the wrong way. Poor job on my part. If you’re on Texas Tech, don’t you want to wait here if the line is coming down and the money is coming in, because it may end up being a pick them game or you might get a point by the time we get to Thursday and they play the game?
Kyle Hunter:
Yeah. I would wait for a pick them if I’m wanting Texas Tech here and this one. And if I like Duke, she can catch that one and a half or one probably go ahead and do it, or plus money on the money line because that money is likely to keep coming in on Duke. that happens year after year and this is going to be the game that everybody talks about all week, guys. This is going to be the one that gets the most publicity of any game this week. So you can imagine that the handle on this game is going to be massive. There’s going to be all kinds of bets and money on this one. So I would think that duke will continue to take the money. If you like Texas Tech, you wait it out.
TJ Reeves:
And again, another interesting notice we pointed out yesterday for the audience that’s watching live here on the Tuesday show. They’re going to play the Gonzaga-Arkansas game at just after 4:00 PM, pacific time, local time in San Francisco, Gonzaga. The number one team in the country, the number one overall seed, arguably three players that are going to be picked maybe in the top 15 of the draft, a couple of them in the lottery and Chad Holmgren and Drew Timmy. They’re playing the early game while the arenas may be going to be half full because of traffic in a major city like that, trying to get in there because they want Duke for the 6:30 Pacific time game. 6:30, 6:45, the late game in San Francisco for Duke and Texas Tech on Thursday night.
TJ Reeves:
Interesting there on the start times and how big of an interest there is on that. One more, I don’t know if we have anything else on the chat. I’ll look here for a chat question for just a second. The gas report wants to know about UTEP and their game tonight and that tournament that’s going on. Do either of you have a thought, I haven’t even looked at that UTEP matchup or again are we in the category of your betting a game just to about a game?
Jeff Nadu:
Yeah. I don’t have much in that one man.
TJ Reeves:
Nothing on that one? Kyle, anything?
Kyle Hunter:
Marlene in that game is the over Southern Uttah doesn’t play much defense at all. The big sky as I mentioned before, a conference where offense rules. UTEP has been playing quicker here of late. I would consider taking over 143 in that one, or maybe even a team total over with UTEP, something like that, because I don’t think Southern Utah can stop UTEP in a game like this. So we’ve talked about before, TJ, these smaller tournament games, especially early, when you get to the semi-finals and finals, they can go under sometimes because the teams care more. But we’re still early enough here where I would certainly lean to the over.
TJ Reeves:
I’m just looking here for what the line opened at for St. Peter’s and Purdue guys. I see it at 12 and a half and you may have it. I’m curious, has there been line moving on that? Has anybody maybe taken the dip publicly right now as the public in, on St Peter’s some and the points or is that pretty well held firm at 12 or 12 and a half for tiny St. Peter’s playing in Purdue Friday?
Jeff Nadu:
Yeah. I’ve seen it pretty much where, it stayed. Hasn’t really moved much. This is going to be one of those games where people are going to say, “St Peter’s continues to be disrespected.” That’s fair. They are being disrespected. To give them 12 points, you gave them 9-10 against Murray and ended up being winning the game and they beat them by 10. So these numbers, at what point do we kind of say to ourselves, “St. Peter’s actually a good team.” And look, the problem that I think maybe they’ll have this week is this is where you really start kind of, you get in the press. I’ve seen Shaheen on literally every show out there. He’s been on Pardon My Take, he’s been on all these different shows.
Jeff Nadu:
He’s been out there. And look, I saw [inaudible 00:33:10] on the news, like this guy’s everywhere. So are they kind of reading their own headlines a little bit? And this is where they pat out. I would be surprised if they beat Purdue. I just don’t see that they have an answer for Edey or Williams. But then again, I didn’t think they really had an answer for Kentucky. The difference between these two teams and Purdue as a huge front court, which the other two teams didn’t really. So I think this is where it probably ends for St Peter’s, but I don’t really want to lay 12 points because I don’t think Purdue’s very good defensively. So I have a lot of concerns.
TJ Reeves:
Roberts got it to the sweet 16 a year ago as a 15 seed and also Florida Gulf coast as a 15 seed back in the 2013 tournament, both of them unable to get past the next round as it turns out. And that will be the first game up in Philadelphia, your backyard, big man. First game up in Philly on Friday night will be so St Peters and Purdue followed by hello, North Carolina and UCLA. All right, guys, let’s circle back to the best college basketball picks. The handicappers are on two different plays in the NIT tonight. Both the road team and like both to win. Kyle, I know you’re liking the Vanderbilt Commodore to win just like what Jeff was saying with St. Bonaventure. So you’ll gladly, both take the three points in the two road games St. Bonaventure at Virginia, Vanderbilt in their road game with Xavier, with all the coaching chaos that Xavier has for their home game. So there we go on the best bets for tonight. Any thoughts in closing, gentlemen? Kyle, anything here in closing?
Kyle Hunter:
No. I’m looking forward to Thursday show where I’ll be back and we’ll be talking about sweet 16 match-ups. Thursday slate, some tremendous games. I’m looking forward to that. So hopefully we can get a couple underdog winners here tonight and best of luck to everyone.
TJ Reeves:
Good stuff. Big man. Any final thoughts before we’re done here for a Tuesday?
Jeff Nadu:
I think that’ll be all. Look forward to the rest of the week. Thank you.
TJ Reeves:
All right. Very good on all of this. Many thanks to Jeff Nadu to Kyle Hunter. Thanks to our colleagues at BetUS. Thank you to the audience for hanging in there with us here on another Tuesday. As you see again, like, subscribe, hit the bell on this channel, share it out. We got much more coming. Sweet 16 games, Thursday and Friday. We’re here at 11:00 AM eastern time throughout the duration of the tournament in the final four. For now, we’re good on the BetUS College Basketball Show. Don’t forget to check out our sportsbook website.
