Corby Craig:
Yeah, it’s interesting because the game before versus Pitt Michigan could not miss. I was on the under in that game and I believe Michigan’s bench started the second half 14 for 20, which is just, I’m not sure what you can do with that. So if they shoot like that versus Arizona State, they wipe the floor, but unfortunately they could not hit anything here.
TJ Reeves:
By the way, Kyle was on an Arizona team late night last night in the PAC 12. Speaking of the PAC 12 and the rival of Arizona State, they scored 104, got into the over, put a bunch of points up on the board. Creighton was a winner. I know we were talking Creighton, UC Riverside on the show yesterday, they were a winner last night. So some good stuff from Thursday.
Let’s get to our records and take a look at how we have done so far to this point. Just a couple of weeks, small sample size, into the college basketball season. You can see that we are above 500, Corby at eight and five, Kyle now at four and three, ready to add to that for a Friday slate. And again, we’ve got matinee games, we’ve got some pre-conference tournaments that are going on and will be playing out to talk about here on the show, get questions and answers ready to go, whether it’s a game that we’re actually talking about or later on in the Q and A as well.
With that, let’s get things underway and we will start with a game involving Georgia State and Eastern Kentucky. This one has Georgia State, the Panthers, favored by four and a half, a total at 146 and a half. Corby Craig, we will lead it off with you. What is the official play that you have on this game?
Corby Craig:
Yeah, so initially it was the over here, which has moved now, I believe, seven points. Just something ridiculous. No big deal. I still like Georgia State here. Georgia State is a team who has basically the exact recipe that’s going to hurt Eastern Kentucky. Eastern Kentucky is a team who wants to push tempo. They’re 22nd in adjusted tempo for Bart Torvik, but that tempo all comes from defensive pressure, they’re trying to force fast breaks, and Georgia State is perfectly the team that has the guard play to do so. They’re going to try to put pressure and force weird situations, but Georgia State has the guard play. I think that they walk press and office Eastern Kentucky’s not great, I like Georgia State here at the four and a half.
TJ Reeves:
All right, interesting. That’s a perennial NCA tournament program. When Ron Hunter was there, he has moved on a couple years ago to Tulane. Georgia State is a two and one team to start the year. Kyle, any thoughts if no official play here, and he talked about the line movement, we’ll elaborate on that generally speaking in a moment. Kyle, any thoughts here?
Kyle Hunter:
Yeah, I mean Georgia State playing quite a bit different with Jonas Hayes as their head coach this year. They look more like a PAC line defense than mixing it up with the zone they have in the past. Do I trust Eastern Kentucky to make shots? Not necessarily. Eastern Kentucky is more about the defense, like Corby said, trying to force that turnover and getting a quick score that way. I think if Georgia State can take care of the basketball, then they’re in pretty good shape. They do have some pretty good guards. That would definitely be the side I would lean.
Georgia State’s two and one, despite the fact they’re shooting 18 point a half percent from three point range and you certainly expect that to regress toward the mean, right? Nobody’s going to shoot 18 and a half percent for the course of the season. So actually a two point loss to Georgia Tech at home, despite the fact that they couldn’t make a three, and then a win against a Mercer team that’s not bad. Eastern Kentucky definitely worse than both of those two teams. So yeah, I can see this one as well.
TJ Reeves:
Corby, you were mentioning the line movement and we’ll just go ahead and bring it up here. What was it, the total, and how much did it move again?
Corby Craig:
Yeah, so this morning I bet 144 I believe, and you can get a 152 on the total currently up, and so it’s just something ridiculous. It’s been that all year to start college basketball. I think that these groups just are moving lines way too much. Honestly, at this point, I think that I trust openers a little bit more than I trust moves of seven plus. I don’t think that the people who make openers are just that wrong. So I’ve found myself on the opposite side of these massive moves a lot. Unfortunately, I am at the start of this move, so I don’t want a middle by any means, but I do think in the 151, 152 range, you’re getting pretty close to value only on the underlay. There’s no way you could bet the over at this spot.
TJ Reeves:
All right, so stay away from the total, however, let’s lock Corby in. He is on the side, he’s on Georgia State in game number one for this Friday. He’ll lay the four and a half with the Panthers playing in downtown Atlanta against Eastern Kentucky. We move on to game number two and involves an SEC team. Vanderbilt got a quality win earlier in the week. They now play host to Morehead State. They’re laying 12 and a half. The total is 134. Kyle Hunter has an official play. I have a feeling where we’re headed here, but Kyle make it official. What are you thinking about this one?
Kyle Hunter:
Can usually [inaudible 00:08:19] where I’m going, but Vanderbilt with a bit of an issue on offense trying to replace Scotty Pippin, Jr. I mean that’s a pretty big drop off there. They’re 304th in average possession length so far this year. Definitely slowing the pace down, doesn’t really surprise me without Pippin. Jordan Wright’s a good player in general, Myles Stute pretty good as well, but I think those guys were kind of used to getting set up by Scotty Pippin. Now they’ve got to create on their own. I think that’s going to be difficult, especially against a good defense.
Morehead State certainly lost their star in Janai Broome, who went to Auburn, but the Eagles are still a pretty good defensive team in my mind, and they’re very good at forcing the pace to be slow. I expect them to be able to do that again here. They’re 307th in average possession length in the country. Nothing here would suggest anything other than a slow-paced game, and Morehead State will settle for a lot of threes. Morehead State not really a great shooting team, but they’re not very good at getting inside the paint. They don’t have much height. Vandy only allowed 30% from three point range last year. Wouldn’t be surprised to see a pretty ugly shooting night here from Morehead State. And like I said, I think Vanderbilt’s offensive efficiency will be lower this year without Pippin Jr. So I’m going to take the under in this one.
TJ Reeves:
Very interesting, again, for Vandy playing there at Memorial Gym with the benches on the end. They suffered an opening season loss to Memphis, but now they will take on Morehead, say they actually had a couple of losses to begin the year, Vanderbilt, but did bounce back with a win over Temple, at Temple, 89 to 87 earlier in the week. They’re now back home with Morehead State. Corby, any thoughts here on what Kyle is looking at here on this one?
Corby Craig:
Yeah, I think Morehead is a team that basically only plays to the idea of an under. They’re a very slow-paced team that really relies on defense. That being said, also as you bring up, every time we’ve talked about Vanderbilt, they’re home court advantage I think is something that a lot of weight doesn’t get put on. It is a completely different feel of a gym than any other gym in the nation. So I like the idea of playing unders in Vanderbilt basically anytime they play a team as slow paced Morehead. So I agree with the side here.
TJ Reeves:
All right, so let’s lock in officially for Kyle Hunter here that he likes the under in this one, under 134 in the Vandy Morehead State game coming for Friday. Again, a bevy of very interesting games that we will get to, get questions ready in the live chat question and answer as you’re watching us live in the 11:00 AM hour on Friday. We’re here Monday through Friday.
Game number three on our slate from the handicappers. We’ve got a Big 12 team in Oklahoma State taking on UCF, Central Florida out of Orlando, Oklahoma State laying five and a half in this win. The total is 133 and a half for this matchup between the Cowboys and the UCF Knights. Kyle Hunter, we are back to you. Do I sense a theme on a Friday, again, with an early season kind of out of conference, pre-conference matchup between the American and the Big 12? Do I sense that theme, Kyle?
Kyle Hunter:
Yeah, you do. You know this is a neutral court game in the Bahamas, too. So for those who weren’t listening yesterday, 54.7% unders in a 2,600 game sample size for neutral court games in games one through eight of the season. So that dates back 15 years. It’s a large sample size. Also, I want to say, I didn’t say this yesterday, it’s really important to note that the 54.7% unders is the closing total, and you’re going to want to pay attention to these neutral court games. They’re going to get bet down most of the time. So if you like the under, you want to bet it earlier. If you like the over, you want to wait, because the neutral court games are going to be bet down. A lot of those big line moves have been unders, in those neutral court games. So keep that in mind.
UCF is 347th in average possession length, really playing slow, Oklahoma State 41st. So we definitely have a pace war game. In general. I don’t love pace war games, but in this case Oklahoma State is much better defense than they are on offense. They’ve been much better defensively than they have on offense the last couple years. Oklahoma State in the 15th percentile in the country in floor spacing. So it suggests to me they’re not running great sets on offense.
Oklahoma State really loves to attack the rim, but UCF is a really tall team, 28th tallest team in the country, a lot of shot blockers down there. And if you look at UCF, they take a lot of mid-range jumpers. In general, unless you have a unique type of player, I don’t love taking a lot of mid-range jumpers because it’s not that high quality of a shot long term. Oklahoma State is 15th best in the nation in open three rate allowed, so tough to find open looks against them. So I’m going to take an under here on this neutral court game and think that we could be in for some poor shooting from these two teams.
TJ Reeves:
Again, it is part of a tournament, the Baha Mar Tournament that is taking place in The Bahamas. That is a primetime game on Friday night with UCF and Oklahoma State. So Johnny Dawkins slowing it down a little bit. Corby, any thoughts here on this one?
Corby Craig:
Yeah, Oklahoma State is a team that last year I really enjoyed betting overs on. Their pace just didn’t really match what they were being projected at this year. It looks like they’re projected 92nd in tempo, so that’s gotten adjusted really quick. It is probably too high at this point, so I would lean basically blindly unders. Avery Anderson’s a really good point guard. Boone is a guy who just can’t really shoot. This is a team that works best in transition and versus a very slow UCF team, I don’t imagine there being enough transition to make this go over. So again, I agree on the side with the under here.
TJ Reeves:
DePaul and Santa Clara, if I’m seeing correctly, are the other two teams that are in this tournament in the Bahamas playing on the weekend, at least in the night half of the bracket to get the winner of this game. Once again, we lock Kyle Hunter in on an early season under, he’s going to go under the total, which is now at 133.5. It could go up again or down after the show is over with. But we’re locking in on that price that Kyle got a little while ago before the show began and before we had to enter everything in graphically, et cetera on the show. Good luck Kyle. Two Underplays here on a Friday.
One game with an official play still left, another game that we’re going to talk about, then it’s your turn with questions and answers. Let’s go to a team that we’ve talked about the last … We certainly did down the stretch of last season, Grand Canyon, a team that was in the NCAA tournament a couple of years ago playing Grambling tonight and laying 13 points in a matchup here in Arizona. This is a game with a total of 134. Corby Craig, I’m coming to you, for what have you isolated on Grand Canyon University and Grambling on a Friday night.
Corby Craig:
Yeah, another one that’s moved a little bit, but it’s still fine at the 134 for the over here. Grambling is a team off a Colorado win, they just look a little different than expected, but this tempo is what’s really hurting teams. Colorado wasn’t ready for the pace and the pressure that Grambling was forcing. Grambling ended up scoring 83 on a Colorado team. That’s not bad.
On the other side, Grand Canyon is playing very slow at 353rd in the nation. This would be the slowest team that Drew has ever had, I believe. And I think that it is just a testament to the teams that they’ve played. So they played Montana State, Nevada, basically that’s it, and they were both very slow template teams. So they’re just getting rated towards the teams that they’ve played. They haven’t been forced into fast play so they haven’t had to play fast. Defensively they’re really good team that’s going to slow the pace down. But on offense, I think that they’re going to be able to breeze through this Grambling press and the tempo is just too low here for a team. And Grambling kept up with basically everybody they’ve played so far. So I expect a little better game than they expected. Grambling’s rated 300th in [inaudible 00:16:08] and they looked really good in that Colorado game, so I think this line was 13, and so I expect Grand Canyon to slowly pull away, but it should be a little shootout for a minute.
TJ Reeves:
Shawndarius Cowart is the leading scorer through two games for Grambling. Give me five bonus points for that one. And while we compare scores, Grambling beats Colorado, and then Colorado turns around and beats Tennessee, who’s in the top 20, right after that. So this is an interesting one here. Kyle, any thoughts if no official play on that Grambling team that already has a surprise win early in the season?
Kyle Hunter:
Yeah, I mean I couldn’t believe that Colorado went to Grambling to play a game. I mean it’s pretty surprising. There’s really no win in that. I mean if you go win, you’re supposed to win. If you lose it’s a bad loss. Grambling, I think, is a pretty well coached team with Dante Jackson, one of the better coached teams in the SWAC. The Grand Canyon has a great home court advantage. I like watching games from there. It’s one of those places I’d love to go watch a game. Just the student section gets pretty raucous. I do agree with Corby that the teams that they’ve played have been very slow paced, that could probably skew that a little bit down. Grand Canyon is going to play relatively slowly throughout the course of the season, but probably in the 280 range or something like that. And they’re 353rd right now. So yeah, I tend to think that this is a good look as well. I have the number pretty close to this so I’m not going to play it myself, but I’m going to root for Corby and that would be my lean.
TJ Reeves:
Again, Grand Canyon with the wins over Montana State and over SD Christian, I’m taking that as South Dakota Christian. They then lost to Nevada.
Kyle Hunter:
San Diego.
TJ Reeves:
San Diego Christian, thank you for the correction on that. I’m just looking at the, can we go back to the graphic? I know Alejandro, I’m kind of on the fly saying go back to the graphic, because I want to look at the logo one more time for Grand Canyon. That’s an antelope kids, they’re the Lopes, for short, the Grand Canyon Lopes. You got to love the Lopes, and they’re laying 13 tonight and the totals 134. Thank you Allie for doing that on the fly. We’ll see what the Lopes have this evening. Corby Craig wants points, points, points. Let’s lock him in on the over, the over of 134 tonight. Wants to see lots of scoring in the game in Arizona this evening.
One more game to go then we’ll get to your live Q and A with a bevy of games. There’s already games underway. We already have a final today, guys. Did you know that? We already had a game in Ireland, believe it or not, earlier this evening in Ireland, a game that just got over a little while ago US time that saw Stetson victorious in Dublin, Ireland. So we’ve had a final today. I don’t know how much the public was in on gambling on that game. Perhaps you degenerates, you savages, were in on that game. I don’t know. But we have a Stetson 78-68 final over Ryder. It’s rare that we’re going to sit here in the 11:00 AM eastern time hour and talk about a final, but we do have a final in the UK from that game that was played earlier today, and some games that are in progress right now.
One more game that is on our schedule is Merrimack and Montana. Now we originally wanted to talk about this game, obviously, from a handicapping standpoint, but we’ve got lots of line movement. Now a nine and a half point spread for Montana. Total is 131. So we don’t have an official play here. Kyle, I’m not sure if you had the play or not on this one, but there is significant line movement again here for no official play. But any thought on this one real quick?
Kyle Hunter:
I did have a play. The line moved so much that I hate to give it away at this. Montana was minus six and a half last night, now they’re minus nine and a half, and the total has dropped four, four and a half points. So the team total for Merrimack has dropped four points that I was wanting to take an under on here. Under 65 and under 61 are pretty different bets, obviously. So if you’ve got to stay at a 60 or lower it’s hard to start taking a team total there. I mean maybe if it’s IUPUI or Eastern Illinois or something like that. But I just think that over the long term, if you’re taking team totals under that low of a number, you better like it quite a bit.
I think Montana probably wins that game, and I still slight lean to the under there, but I just think the value is gone in that type of situation. I think Merrimack unders will have value throughout the course of the season. So if you’re watching this and you want to pay attention to Merrimack games going forward, I’m always going to lean to the under in their games. That zone defense is interesting. They usually slow the tempo down. So in this one I agree with both the line moves going toward Montana and the under, but I’ll have to pass based on the large line move.
TJ Reeves:
We did have some conversation about Merrimack and Troy on the show yesterday, and you were on the under, if I have that correct, in that one. So interesting though, the line movement here. Corby, any thoughts if no official play just real quick before we move on?
Corby Craig:
Yeah, I also had the team total under with Kyle, and then I woke up at 6:00 this morning and saw that the line was nine and a half, so I took that off screen as fast as I could. Jordan Minor is hurt and that really hurts Merrimack here. With Montana being at home in what’s supposed to be a neutral site game, it’s a tournament I believe, this is just a bad spot for Merrimack. Again, I completely agree with Kyle that this number is just too low to bet. To assume under 60 points is a pretty tough bet and I think Montana kind of walks through this game.
TJ Reeves:
All right, good enough. No official play on this game, but some conversation about it nonetheless. All right, time to get to some live questions, some live A and A. As things go along we’ve seen some of those questions popping up on the screen here throughout the program. Thank you. The live audience still growing, and we’ll sit here for a little while and have some of these. Let’s get to the live Q and A. Pete is watching and says, do we trust Cal Santa Barbara, UCSB, to cover the nine points versus a lacking Northern Arizona team tonight? Either one of you got a thought on the Gauchos of UCSB tonight.
Kyle Hunter:
I mean I like UCSB as a team, so I think they’re really kind of in a class of their own, the best team in that conference. Laying that many points. It would be just a lean for me, but that would be the side I would be interested in if I had to bet something. Northern Arizona, not exactly a great home court advantage or anything like that, Joe Pasternack does a really good job with the UCSB team. It’s just nine points. I don’t know if you’re getting great value, so I’m curious to see what Corby thinks on that one.
TJ Reeves:
Corby?
Corby Craig:
Yeah, UCSB looked really good in the Fresno game. I agree that nine points is just a lot. It’s probably correct. I would assume this game is 9, 10, 11, in most cases. I really like that this chat is as nasty of finding just absolute dogs as possible. We didn’t talk about any of the primetime games in this show, and the first question is UCSB versus Northern Arizona and I just …
TJ Reeves:
Exactly.
Corby Craig:
I love it. Baylor plays tonight. Baylor versus Virginia. And our first question is Cal Santa Barbara. I love it.
TJ Reeves:
The savages like to go off the beaten path. I’m seeing a lot of their questions and we will say something about Baylor and Virginia and the other game that’s in Las Vegas because that’s a doubleheader where the winners are obviously playing each other on Saturday. A lot of great pre-conference tournaments that are kind of whittling down. We’ll get to some of those games and some of those match ups. We also have a Kentucky Gonzaga standalone game in Spokane. Kentucky electing to play at the Kennel at Gonzaga’s campus. That one coming on Sunday. So we’ll get to all of that in a couple of minutes.
A couple of other questions. Let me see. Mike is watching us. My buddy Mike Gill is watching us. How you doing, Mike? All good. Let’s see. Mike, and I lost the question that he had because I’ve got several of them in front of me. Let me double check. Mike wants to know thoughts on LaSalle plus the points against Wake. There it is on the screen and that it is a smaller number. Corby, you want to tackle that one with LaSalle and Troy?
Corby Craig:
Yeah, so LaSalle’s basically been a team that nobody really wants to face for the last couple years. They’ve been a tough like mid one 150s to 200 team for quite some time. Wake on a neutral. I made this three and a half. So it’s going to be a pretty tight game. Wake Forest isn’t a bad team by any means. But LaSalle looked really good in their games versus Wagner and Queens. They’re as good versus Villanova by any means. I really don’t know what to think here. I don’t have enough of a read on LaSalle. Maybe Kyle does. It’s not a team that I look too deep into, but I know that historically it has not been a team that you really want to bet against in any manner.
TJ Reeves:
Kyle, any thought?
Kyle Hunter:
I lean the under. I mean it’s a neutral court game early in the season. LaSalle plus the points would probably be my lean, but I don’t feel strongly about this one. So Wake Forest has a decent amount of turnover from last year’s team. Not really sure what to make of them right here. So this is a game I would pass on pretty easily, but if forced to I’d probably lean LaSalle.
TJ Reeves:
That one is in Jamaica as part of a tournament as well. And Mike Gill, shout. Now Mike, how did you not finagle to be covering that LaSalle game in Jamaica? Mike’s in the media in the greater Philadelphia area for that. Let’s continue a couple of more. Hayden is watching. It says VMI opened at plus 10 now at plus 14. Any thoughts on VMI? They’re playing Longwood, I believe it is. Either one of you like that? Kyle, any thought?
Kyle Hunter:
I mean, first thing I thought was when I saw this line I thought Longwood’s minus 14 against somebody? But I mean Longwood’s not a bad team. It’s just surprising to see a minus 14. But when you dig into it, I’m not excited to bet VMI. I mean do I really want to bet VMI? Not necessarily. I guess that would be my lean, but man Corby’s, right, they’re really giving us some under the radar games here, that’s for sure. And I love it. I mean I’m here for it, that’s for sure. VMI slight lean for me playing there in Virginia against Longwood. VMI with a coaching change, I’m not really sure what to make of exactly what they’ll look like under Andrew Wilson. So that’s a team that I’d rather pass on for now and see what they look like.
TJ Reeves:
Corby, any quick thought or you just want to move on off of that one?
Corby Craig:
I have a little bit on VMI. So VMI is a team that has basically completely shifted their entire scheme. So they’ve always been a run and gun three point team. I believe they were like top five in tempo for the last X amount of years. So there’s been really a market struggle to figure out where this team is. I think that there was over graded early in the season. They’re 168th in tempo currently. They played Davidson to a pretty good game. They only scored 48 versus Richmond. So this is a team that, I think the market just hates the idea of them completely changing schemes. So 14’s probably too much.
That said, Longwood last year was a really good team. I watched them versus Alabama this year. It’s hard to compare anybody versus Alabama. Alabama’s just a team that just, I don’t know how to explain it. I really don’t like this Alabama team. So didn’t really get much information out of that game. They scored 54 in that game. So I think Longwood’s defense, or not defense, their offense, is not very good because Alabama’s defense struggles. I would lean the under here. I think VMI probably is pushed too much from a market overreaction from them being such a high tempo for the last few years.
TJ Reeves:
All right, good advice on that. We do have a noon game coming up Eastern Time right after the show is off the year with Colorado and Texas A&M in Myrtle Beach. Both teams off of losses. We mentioned the Colorado upset against Tennessee, but you sandwich around that they lost to Grambling and I’m checking they lost in the quarter final game yesterday to UMass in this Myrtle Beach tournament. Do you guys have any thoughts on Colorado and Texas A&M? I was double checking for the Bet US line for that one. Looks like the line is six in that one in Myrtle Beach. Any quick thought on that? Because it’s coming up shortly. A lot of silence, lot of black looks, not much there. Okay.
Corby Craig:
I made the total 136, so maybe a little bit to the under, but not really much.
TJ Reeves:
Another noon game in Charleston, South Carolina. Same part of the country, but not in the same tournament. Penn State and Virginia Tech are playing. Virginia Tech, I see you nodding Corby, is the slight favorite. Any thought for those that are short-term investing, let’s say, here in a little while if you’re watching us live?
Corby Craig:
Yeah, I know Kyle commented on my tweet about this, but I have bet … So there’s betting groups that have hit Penn State’s overs basically every single game this year thinking that Penn State runs a high tempo. They shoot so many threes. It is all deception. If you watch these games, it looks fast [inaudible 00:29:09] possessions for [inaudible 00:29:12]. And after every single steam, I have bet the Penn State under at this point. I’m hoping that this game steams, I believe as we’re on the show, I got a text that it did. I think it’s at 142 now. And if it did, I like the under, if it’s anywhere over 140 I like under in the Penn State game. I have not looked at the line currently, but I like the under here. Anything over 140.
TJ Reeves:
Kyle, you may have seen more information on that. Any thought or you want to move on off Penn State and Virginia Tech?
Kyle Hunter:
Yeah, I’m trying to look to see exactly what the line is here right now on Bet US.
TJ Reeves:
Yep.
Kyle Hunter:
If you guys see it before me shout it out, but if it’s 142.
TJ Reeves:
We’ll let you find it and figure it out. And again, this is in the Shriner’s Children’s Charleston Classic coming up at noon. Both of them undefeated, by the way. Penn State and Virginia Tech, both four and oh. Did you come up with it, Kyle, or do we just want to move on?
Kyle Hunter:
I don’t see. Oh, okay. They’re kind of out order because they’re the tournament games. But 142 is the total here. I think that’s too high. Yeah. I might be betting a little bit of something on this myself here pretty soon. But Virginia Tech’s not a team that’s going to push pace either. They can be efficient sometimes shooting, but this is again a neutral court game starting early in the day, 142 for a Penn State game. I mean if you give me 142 and a Penn State game, you would think they’d be playing a team that’s playing really fast. I agree with Corby. I think that’s a good under.
TJ Reeves:
All right, real quick. Jace is watching us. He says, could you discuss Indiana and Xavier. I lean Indiana, but I want to hear your thoughts, please, on that one. You see Jace’s comment there up on the screen. Kyle, quickly right back to you, thought on that one?
Kyle Hunter:
I would lean Indiana here, but I don’t feel too strongly about it. I kind of like the over a little bit in this one. Xavier’s still been playing relatively quickly. Yeah, the 28th in average possession length in the country. I didn’t know exactly what they’d do under Miller. Miller was kind of back and forth on tempo in the past.
TJ Reeves:
I was just going to say Sean Miller is back there. Keep going.
Kyle Hunter:
Yeah.
TJ Reeves:
Yep.
Kyle Hunter:
Yeah, I mean it’ll be interesting to see how he does. Obviously not leaving on the best of ways from Arizona, then coming back to Xavier. Sometimes you see guys come back to a place they’ve been before, not have as much success. We’ve seen that a lot in college football. I would think he’d have success here. I mean, Xavier’s set up to be a successful team in general, but it’s interesting to see Indiana going to Xavier to play a game. I would lean Indiana here, but lean over as well. I don’t think I’ll bet either of those. But that’s my leans.
TJ Reeves:
It’s part of the Gavitt Games, a TipOff game, it’s a made for television game and it’s 6:00 Eastern Time tonight at the Cintas Center where Xavier plays their home games. And Indiana, you’re right, good on them, agreeing to go be part of that. TV has some influence. Corby, any quick thought? I want to move on. Any quick thought on Indiana Xavier?
Corby Craig:
Yeah, it all comes down to Colby Jones. Is he playing or not. A Birmingham native, that’s my guy. If he’s playing for Xavier then I’d probably lay off. If he’s not playing, then Indiana would be my side.
TJ Reeves:
You did mention, I’ll bring up Virginia and Baylor are playing in Las Vegas. That’s a four team tournament as well. They’re up first at 4:00 Pacific Time, 7:00 Eastern Time. T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Thoughts, Corby, real quick on Virginia? Baylor favored by four, four and a half. Any thoughts on Virginia and the Baylor Bears?
Corby Craig:
Yeah, lean the under. Baylor, I don’t think, has the offense they’ve had in years past. They went pretty quick as of late with against some pretty bad teams. And we all know that Virginia really wants to push the pace down.
TJ Reeves:
And we should make mention too, the horrific tragedy that has happened with the shooting death of the three football players, the other students that were seriously injured as well, by a former Virginia football player has basically shut everything down for the previous two or three days on the Virginia campus. It canceled a Virginia home basketball game earlier in the week. They’ve now traveled to Las Vegas to play. The football team will not be playing this weekend. There’s some debate as to whether the football team will play the final game with Virginia Tech next week. We don’t know that yet, but at least the Virginia Cavalier basketball team is back in action all the way out west from where they are in Las Vegas in this game. Kyle, do you have any quick thought on Baylor and Virginia on the court before we move on?
Kyle Hunter:
I mean, just a terrible tragedy and I hate to handicap a game like this just because you don’t know exactly what’s been going on.
TJ Reeves:
Sure.
Kyle Hunter:
In their minds too. I mean, I will say Virginia being sixth in the Ken Palm ranking surprises me, I feel like that’s too high for Virginia. Virginia hasn’t really shown us anything to where I would think that they would be that good. The odds makers have moved this number up higher on Baylor. I really don’t have a lean here. Like I said, there’s just too much going on there.
TJ Reeves:
Quickly. UCLA and Illinois is the other half of that tournament. That’s 6:30 Pacific Time, or thereabouts. 9:30 Eastern Time tonight. Any quick thoughts? UCLA favored on the neutral floor by four, four and a half, something like that. Any quick thoughts, guys, on that?
Corby Craig:
Again, another for me, it seems repetitive, but these neutral games, I think that the numbers are getting pushed too high, really. I think it’s 145 and a half. So I had it 139.
TJ Reeves:
Interesting. Kyle thought, maybe on the total?
Kyle Hunter:
Yeah, I had 145 here. So we are different on the number here on this one. I’m going to pass on it. I would lean Illinois in this one. Illinois’s been playing quicker here this year. Underwood liked to press in the past at Steven F. Austin and he wasn’t able to do that with Kofi Cockburn because he’s such a big guy. You don’t really want to push tempo with a guy like that. Now their big guys are more athletic, you’ve got Coleman Hawkins who can run the floor well, certainly. I just lean Illinois thinking that they may be a bit undervalued here in the early season.
TJ Reeves:
All right, one more. I’ll just share this. I’m in the state of Florida. I often joke, Corby, I don’t know if you’ve heard this joke, because I’m self deprecating. I’m not in the state of confusion. I’m in the state of Florida, and Florida and Florida State play in Tallahassee tonight. Now they usually play this game around the Florida, Florida State football game, on the Friday night before the football game where the fan bases can come to the basketball and then the football. That’s not the case. Florida and Florida State don’t play until next week. The only reason I bring it up, not just a handicapping perspective, if Florida State doesn’t win they’re oh and four to start the season under Leonard Hamilton, I don’t know that they’ve ever been oh and four. And Florida is significantly favored in this game tonight. Florida lost earlier in the week to Florida Atlantic. Any quick thought, you don’t have to handicap it. FSU oh and four, if they lose, a perennial NCAA tournament team, they won the ACC a couple of years ago.
Kyle Hunter:
I …
TJ Reeves:
Silence. Silence from the guys.
Kyle Hunter:
I mean, well, what are we supposed to do with a game like this? This is a Florida State team that has to be better than what they’ve shown, right? I mean it would seem so.
TJ Reeves:
You would think. They’ve been injured as well. I talked to a couple of Noles, they’ve been got a couple of injuries, so that may have effect on the line too, but wow.
Kyle Hunter:
Well, I mean it’s a bad look to lose to Stetson and Troy at home. I don’t trust them very much. Now, Florida State, if, correct me if I’m wrong, they’ve had pretty solid success against Florida in the past, so I don’t know. This is a game I totally stay away from, honestly.
TJ Reeves:
All right, good enough. Corby, anything there? Noles could be oh and four by later on the tonight if they don’t win.
Corby Craig:
I’ll make it 75-70 Florida. So basically right on. I can’t do much with that.
TJ Reeves:
All right, fair enough on those, and again, a bevy of games. Let’s go ahead and take a look at our best NBA bets and we’ll get one final thought for the weekend coming up. Here’s what the guys are on officially, if you’re just joining us here on the show, and again, thank you. Live audience has grown and grown as we have gone on here today. Corby’s on a side with Georgia State also has a total, and Kyle has got a couple of unders that we will be looking at. We did not get a specific thought from either one of you on Gonzaga Kentucky. Very interesting. Speaking of teams willing to travel, Kentucky doesn’t do this very much to go play a true road game out at Gonzaga in Spokane. Any thought as we close out here on the weekend, that is a Sunday night game, made for TV Sunday night game, Kentucky off the double overtime loss to Michigan State. Gonzaga got rolled by Texas earlier in the week. Guys, any quick thoughts there on that game as we come back here.
Kyle Hunter:
I mean, Gonzaga is kind of in a bounce back spot, but I don’t think Gonzaga’s quite as good as they have been. Yeah, I think this team’s going to be down some from where they have been at least. They were fortunate to beat Michigan State, then just blown away by Texas. If Kentucky’s getting points at Gonzaga, I’d probably lean that way.
TJ Reeves:
Corby any thought here? Kentucky Gonzaga? Sunday night?
Corby Craig:
Yeah, I completely agree. I think that it’s interesting to see Gonzaga trying to boost up and toughen up their schedule after people have complained for years at this point, and then the second that they do, they just start getting manhandled by Texas. They should have gotten smacked by Michigan State. So it’s interesting. I actually like this Gonzaga team. I think that Kentucky probably hands it to them at home, but I respect them at least trying to play the best teams in the nation early in the season.
TJ Reeves:
Yeah, the savages are going back and forth in the live chat about Kentucky and Gonzaga. You still got Drew Timmy there. We shall see. We shall see what this looks like on Sunday night for the Wildcats and the Zags, the Gonzaga Bulldogs. With that, I think we have got a full Friday show. Guys, great job as always. Once again, thank you to everybody watching us live. We’re here Monday through Friday at 11:00 AM Eastern Time, talking college hoops. Kyle Hunter, have a great weekend. Thank you, sir.
Kyle Hunter:
Thank you. Same to you.
TJ Reeves:
Corby Craig. Have a great weekend. Good luck with your plays. We look forward to everybody being back with us on Monday. Everybody enjoy all the college hoops, gather some more information, A lot of big time match ups on Friday and Friday night, even, to watch. For all of our crew, Alejandro, everybody behind the scenes at Bet US. Don’t forget to check out our sportsbook website. Thank you. And we thank you for watching.
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