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College Basketball Picks, Predictions & Best CBB Betting Odds [Wednesday, Jan 4th]

College Basketball – The NCAAB Show

 

T.J. Rives:

Well, hello there, and welcome back into a Wednesday edition of the BetUS College Basketball Show. We are America’s favorite sportsbook and I am back with the two Matts. I’m the somewhat capable host, T.J. Rives. Mid Major Matt is back aboard for a second time this week. And off of a 2-0 underdog, very well-performing Tuesday, Matty Cox is back aboard. Boys, how you feeling? Mid Major Matt, we don’t want to short you. You were on the show on Monday and had a couple of winners as well with an over and with an under. The show is 5-2 to start the week. Everything good as we get into Wednesday? Mid Major Matt, how you feeling?

Matt Josephs:

Well I said it on the show what, last week or two weeks ago, T.J. I said I was hoping that Louisville would get a win before yesterday because I had a feeling Syracuse would make things interesting. It was crazy they were a 9 point road favorite. They shouldn’t be a 9 point road favorite against anybody, but thank God we got the victory and it will not be one of Louisville’s victories this season.

T.J. Rives:

What was that at the end of the game on their final two possessions? You can say what you want about lack of talent, but if you didn’t see it Louisville, it looked like bad middle school basketball at the end of that game. You’ll take it, Mid Major Matt, for the Syracuse win, but Matty Cox, are we looking at a Louisville team that’s going to win like, three games at the end of this year? That’s what it looks like right now.

Matty Cox:

Yeah, they’re going to be I think a potential thorn in the side of some ACC foes who decide to sleep walk, but still, the talent’s lacking. And despite some of the recent, “inspiring,” quote, unquote, efforts, I don’t think we need to maybe paint this as a ship that’s course-corrected by any means. I think it’s just a slight two degree deviation from where they were.

T.J. Rives:

Which is not much, looking way up. Okay, so just a couple of things that we have here for the audience. What was that in Austin, Texas last night? Are they done scoring yet? 116 to 103. I got to confess, I’m watching the Kansas game and I saw the score flash for halftime. For halftime, I didn’t notice it was halftime, Kansas State 58, I think Texas 40 and I’m like man, that turned out to be a low scoring game. That was at the half. Maddy Cox, what was that last night where K State put 116 points on the board in a regulation college game?

Matty Cox:

It makes no sense. It defies all logic. I think we have to remember this is not a Chris Beard coached Texas team anymore. And I’m not saying that Rodney Terry is inept or that they’ve completely overhauled how they play, but they don’t have that same brand or identity. We’ve seen them, God, they score 100 points against who was that, the Texas A&M Commerce, so it feels like just a different type of the Texas team at this point.

T.J. Rives:

Just not grinding out. Mid Major Matt, Markquis Nowell with 36, they scored 116 points. They scored 58 points in each half, the Wildcats, in Austin.

Matt Josephs:

Yeah. It’s one of those weird holiday type things. And obviously the holidays are over, but this is still the holiday crowds, the students aren’t back yet, so it’s just one of those weird conference results that you won’t see happen probably again, at least until next holidays.

T.J. Rives:

And welcome to conference play, Matty Cox. We said during the Q&A yesterday about Fresno State, losing record or not, at home and they knock off New Mexico, beating them by four late night last night in Fresno in the Mountain West game. So New Mexico, the last of the unbeaten. Did you guys see, it’s the second quickest ever that we’re out of unbeaten teams on January 3rd? The quickest ever is the 2017-2018 season. That season we were out of unbeaten teams December 30th, before New Year’s. This is the second quickest ever, with Purdue going down on Monday night and then New Mexico losing on Tuesday night. Anybody can beat anybody, and welcome to conference play. You guys ready? We ready to move forward? Ready to go for a Wednesday? Ready to do this?

Let’s take a look at our records. Again, with the 5-2 start to the week, you see the show has now crept up right at the 500 mark. Mid Major Matt and Matty Cox are getting up towards the 500 mark as well. Corby Craig by the way, on the show yesterday, did go one and one with his plays. He did hit the under in the Northern Illinois-Akron game. And with that, let’s get rolling with official plays in game number one, which will be an SEC game to start us off. Some intrigue in the SEC last night where Kentucky won over LSU, for example. Well, tonight it’s Auburn on the road at Georgia, Auburn laying 7.5, total 136.5. The first official play belongs to Mid Major Matt. What do you like, sir, on this one?

Matt Josephs:

Well we’re heading to the deli for this selection because it’s a nice, healthy sandwich for the Auburn Tigers coming off the three point win against Florida at home and staring at a home game against Arkansas this weekend, which is a much bigger contest for them, obviously. And look, Auburn has been a little shaky on the road. Obviously they beat up on Washington, but they lost that game at USC, and I’ll go back to last year. You look at Auburn last year, February 1st they beat up on Alabama at home by 19. They had a game against Arkansas on the road. In between, they went to lowly Georgia, and last year Georgia was very lowly, and the only won that game there by too.

And so I’m going to play this situation here. It’s a better Georgia team. Mike White’s bunch does a lot of things very solidly. The turnover issue is a bit of a problem. I hope they don’t turn it over a lot, but they’re going to hold their own on the boards. They’re not a bad offense, they play some defense. It is a home game, I’m hoping for a decent atmosphere here. But I’m going to play the situational spot here, and we’ve seen Auburn at times fall apart a little bit in these sort of games where they kind of rely on their athleticism a little bit and maybe not necessarily play as much defense. So I’m going to hope Georgia shows up here in this sandwich spot for Auburn, so give me the home underdog.

T.J. Rives:

I don’t know, Matty Cox, how many people, and I did not know this, knew that Georgia was already off to a 10-3 start with Mike White. They are. They are at home. Any thought here on what Matt Josephs had to say if no official play here on Auburn at Georgia?

Matty Cox:

Yeah. I saw Auburn’s taking a ton of money. I got bet up to eight, which is kind of surprising, you’re right. You mentioned you Georgia’s played well. I think they’re a little bit smoke and mirrors akin to the LSU inflated record. I don’t think anyone believes that team’s as good as they are, although they just competed with Kentucky last night. So I would tread lightly if you’re looking to come in against the market’s team on Georgia, although that is where I lean. You got to wonder about home court here too. How many fans are going to be really dialed in for this game, given the looming national title game that will be tipping off here soon?

T.J. Rives:

And typically get 4 or 5,000 for their games. It’s called Stegeman Coliseum. They might sell out. Kentucky comes in, they sell out. I don’t know how big, Auburn, they can travel a little bit. Auburn is not that far from Athens, three or four hours by car, so they might have some fans there for this. It’s a midweek game. Matt Josephs, like you’re pointing out, the students aren’t there at a lot of these games. You watch the Fresno State game last night, they had no students at the game. In Fresno, they were lucky if they had 4 or 5,000 at the game for the upset of New Mexico. So we don’t know about atmosphere, but we’ll see what Georgia can do at home in this matchup with Auburn. We’ll lock Mid Major Matt in.

He is on the home doggy, the Georgia Bulldogs, “Go dogs, sic ’em,” plus 7.5 the matchup with Auburn. By the way, thank you for finding us. Glad that you did so for this Wednesday edition of the show. Make sure you hit the like button, make sure you are subscribed to this show. The live audience continues to grow, our subscriber base continues to grow. Can we get to 3,500 subs by the end of this month? I think we can get there before the end of this month. The only way that happens though is with your help, so hit subscribe, make sure you share the show out. That helps us out as well. I see the live audience.

I know I say this all the time, but in the first seven or eight minutes of the show, the live audience has already quadrupled, so keep going. Hit the light button, share it out and we will get to your Q&A in a little bit when we’re done with some official plays. Great interaction weekday mornings here at 11:00 AM all the way through March, all the way through the Final Four. All right, let’s continue. Let’s go back to the Big 10. A lot of discussion on the Big 10 yesterday on the show. We’re going right back to Penn State at Michigan, with Michigan laying the four points on the total on the BetUS line at 141.5. Matty Cox, you won with Minnesota as an underdog in the Big 10 last night, you’re back on a Big 10 game tonight. What is the play?

Matty Cox:

Looking at taking the home Wolverines. Obviously missed a little bit of the value as opened at minus three, but now Michigan off that dominant performance against Maryland, and came a game after losing it a home to central Michigan. So it’s sort of a Jekyll and Hyde team, it has been all year for Michigan. However, it’s a great spot to back them against Penn State, a team that’s small, they’re undersized. They have no true center up front. Head coach Micah Shrewsbury has kind of leaned into that as their identity, and by association, they’ve been able to exploit a lot of these traditional plotting Big 10 teams with these monstrous bigs inside.

However, that can work against them. We saw Penn State take a little bit of a step back in conference play last year, I think you see a little bit of a regression in conference play this season. They racked up their price in the market by dominating teams in the non-conference. I think you kind of see a little bit of a fallback to Earth here. I think you’ll see a similar dynamic with Northwestern, another fellow Big 10 brethren. A lot of angles here I think point toward Michigan. I think you’re starting to see the indicators of a buy low spot here in the market for the Wolverines.

T.J. Rives:

Mid Major Matt, a thought on Penn State in at 11-3? Penn State has won five games in a row, mixing in wins over Illinois and Iowa with Canisius, Quinnipiac, Delaware State. Any thought on the Nittany coming in here as the road team?

Matt Josephs:

Well, you’re going to see a lot of clean possessions. These are one and two offensively in turnover percentage for the least turnovers in the country, so you’re going to see a lot of clean possessions, not that either of the defenses force a lot of turnovers. This Penn State team’s interesting. Already won at Illinois, a double overtime loss at Clemson, so it’s not like they’re going to be intimidated I think. And then also, when we look at conference play, you also have to look at situations. And Saturday, a road trip to Michigan State, which is a bigger game. That’s not to say that Michigan’s going to sleep walk through tonight, but you always have to be leery of who’s up next, who they just played. They just played the Maryland game, so obviously that doesn’t really matter, but a little leery about the Michigan State game being next. And Penn State not being a team that’s like gotten fat and happy at home, they’ve performed decently on the road as well.

T.J. Rives:

All right, Mid Major Matt with some thoughts, Matty Cox has had some thoughts and he has the official play. He says, “Go Blue.” He likes the Wolverines, and he’s going to lay four points tonight in the matchup with Penn State. We continue. On a Wednesday program, we go to the Power 6 conferences a lot, we go outside the Power six as well on this show. So up next, let’s talk a little VMI and Samford, shall we? We’ve talked about both of these teams on the show already this season. Samford laying 13.5 in this one at home, total is 143 for the game. Mid Major Matt, I’m back to you. What’s the official play on this matchup?

Matt Josephs:

Well, so normally when I like to play overs, I want somebody to speed through the game. I want somebody, preferably the home team, to be the faster team. Well, both squads are right around average when it comes to tempo, but you’re going to get some efficient possessions I feel like. When you look at VMI, they shoot the three really well, they shoot free throws really well. They are horrific at two point defense. They don’t force turnovers, so whatever Samford wants to do, they’re going to be able to do. If you look at VMI on the road, they’ve given up 90 at Longwood, they gave 80 at Fordham, they gave 85 at Furman, and so they’re not exactly going to provide a lot of resistance here.

Samford, a very efficient offense. Obviously Corby’s talked about them, picked a good spot. Remember Saturday against the Citadel? Obviously they won that game, won it rather easily. And then you look at Samford, their weakness is three point defense. What does VMI do? They shoot a ton of three pointers. So I’m not going to see a lot of turnovers, I’m not going to see a lot of resistance in certain areas. And while the pace may not necessarily be what I want it to be, I think there’s going to be a lot of efficient possessions here, so I’m looking at the over in this game.

T.J. Rives:

You’re looking at a VMI team, I’m just checking here, that has already tried 417 three pointers in 15 games. Somebody else help me with the math on it. That’s a bunch, to your point about volume of threes. Matty Cox, any thought on this game if no official play?

Matty Cox:

I worry about VMI’s inexperience and youth here. It’s just such a young team under Mr. Conroy, who’s a longtime military head coach. He’s been in this, he knows how to win in these programs, but it’s just really lacking talent. And even against an injury-ridden Samford team, I think they really struggle to compete here. I’m not sure how that plays for the total, to be honest. Maybe if the margin balloons to double digits it might open up, but VMI hasn’t really shown a big appetite to run lately, so it’s tough to have a read on that one.

T.J. Rives:

All right. Nonetheless, Mid Major Matt says, “Points, points, points. Give me the over with Samford at home in the matchup with VMI.” We’re coming to your questions and answers here in a few minutes, and there’s a big volume of games besides the ones that we were just talking about. And some of them involving top 25 teams as well as this evening unfolds, including a very interesting Wake Forest-North Carolina game that we’re going to discuss, a couple of other SEC games that may be of interest. Another interesting one out west involving Nevada and Colorado State. Get the questions ready, we’re good for those. One more game that we’re going over officially, and that is one with Incarnate Word and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. You get it all on this show, kids. The Islanders of Corpus Christi laying 13.5 in this matchup, total 141. Matt Josephs, we’re back to you again. What did you isolate from this game for an official player, sir?

Matt Josephs:

So I love my Southland overs. I love the conference as a whole. I think there’s some solid basketball. Now, granted, some of the transfer portal. You see guys like Gus Okafor leave Southeast Louisiana, and so this is a conference that when you play well, unfortunately your stars transfer elsewhere. But I like this Corpus Christi team. A lot of seniors, a lot of guys, the team is still pretty much intact. And as I wanted, as I talked about last game, they’re a running team at home in this situation.

You look at some of their scores at home and you look at some of their scores against the D-2 and D-3 teams, they’re giving up a lot of points to the lower level schools, which shows me that there’s an opportunity here for Incarnate Word, coached by Dr. Carson Cunningham, to potentially get some stuff done. Now, the worry is they’ve had some awful efforts on the road. They scored 39 at Grambling, they scored 50 at Kansas State, but I think Corpus Christi could carry a lot of this one. Last year they went over this number with Corpus Christi carrying a lot of that number, so if Incarnate Word can get to 65, which I think they have a chance to do, I think this one goes over as well. I’ll take the over in this game.

T.J. Rives:

Matt Cox, thoughts here, if anything on a matchup, as Matt said in the Southland Conference? In Corpus Christi tonight, they’re laying a big number. Any thoughts here?

Matty Cox:

Absolutely no thoughts. My Southland takes have been completely off the wall this year, so nothing at all to add.

T.J. Rives:

Again, I’ll throw in my guy Patrick Netherton whenever I can plug him. Northwestern State, they have been very competitive, they pulled an upset earlier with TCU. They are in this conference as well. Southland is fun traditionally. Stephen F. Austin’s been in that conference before, Abilene Christian in that conference before, and they’ve won NCA tournament games when they’ve gotten in, and Matt Josephs wants to see a lot of offense. Let’s see what’s going to happen in this matchup tonight. He says, “Play the over. Play over 141 officially for that matchup this evening.” With that, let’s get into the questions and answers and see what the peeps are saying as the audience continues to grow. If you have not done so, make sure you hit that like button.

You see that we’re here each and every weekday at 11:00 AM, talking college hoops. The guys do a great job of getting their picks in early on so we can get that discussion going, but we’d love to have your input. So obviously you’re here with us live today if you’re watching right now in the 11:00 AM hour. Make it a point to be with us in the 11:00 AM hour. We get great participation. We go over, as I keep saying, anywhere from 10 to 15 games. It seems like more than that sometimes. And we do a lot of that with the Q&A You boys ready? Let’s see what the peeps, what the savages have for us. Ninja 13, he’s always in the lead off spot. He’s like the Ricky Henderson of this show. Ninja 13 says Villanova-Georgetown. He’s curious about the over, the total of 142.5. Matty Cox, a thought on that where Georgetown is at home?

Matty Cox:

I think from a pace perspective, Villanova probably slows this down. They’re one of the best teams in the country at playing the game on their terms, but man, the efficiency could be through the roof care. Georgetown just can’t stop anybody. I know they’ve had some inspiring performances in big games, you could see this being one. But even if they keep this close, I think it’s going to be a high scoring, highly efficient game where Georgetown just makes a lot of shots while they let Villanova get theirs on the other end. So I actually would lean over, despite the fact that the pace probably plays slower.

T.J. Rives:

Matt Josephs, any thought on the over in this situation, Villanova at Georgetown?

Matt Josephs:

You’ll never catch me playing an under in a Georgetown game because their defense is that bad. If Villanova was slightly better and 100%, I’d look at like a Villanova team total over here because I think as Matt just said, the efficiency could be ridiculous. They could score almost every possession, but I would never take an under in a Georgetown game ever.

T.J. Rives:

And it is interesting, we have some games that are beginning a little earlier. This Villanova Georgetown game begins at 6:30 for television reasons, Eastern Time in D.C. out of the Capital One Arena on Fox Sports 1 cable, and it’s going to continue to be a discussion about Patrick Ewing, especially if they get thumped again tonight and dropped to 0-5 in the Big East. How much longer does this go on with a third consecutive bad season? They didn’t win a game last year in the regular season in Big East Play. Don’t want to get off to an 0-5 start, we’ll see if they have anything tonight. There’s some thoughts on the total for that game. Brian is watching us. Brian says, “What about Baylor tonight laying the six?” We saw Kansas win impressively on the road, we saw Kansas State win impressively on the road last night. What about Baylor Bears, guys, laying the 6 or 6.5? It’s six on the BetUS line with TCU. Thoughts? Matt Josephs, thoughts on that?

Matt Josephs:

First true road game for TCU. Obviously they played that game against Utah in Utah, but it wasn’t in Utah’s building, so it’d be interesting to see how they handle the first true road game of the season. You got Baylor coming off a loss. That’s also something to look at is that you got to figure Baylor’s going to bounce back at home, so that’s just a couple of things to consider in this game.

T.J. Rives:

Matty Cox thoughts, if no official play? TCUs lone loss, again, is to Northwestern State. They’re 12-1, they’re the road team. Any thoughts here?

Matty Cox:

Big news is that LJ Cryer is cleared from concussion protocol, so he’s going to be playing. That’s been the big issue with Baylor all year. Their guards have not been consistent.

Matt Josephs:

… Updates on some of their guys, because they’ve been missing guys. Rahsool Diggins and Wildens Leveque, two guys that weren’t playing last game, you want to check out their status for this one?

T.J. Rives:

They do call it SLU sometimes as the nickname in St. Louis, the Billikens. Matty Cox, any thoughts? They’ve kind of been up and down. As Mid Major Matt was just saying, they’re only 2-3 their last five games. Any thoughts on them playing at UMass here just real quick, if no play?

Matty Cox:

Completely this game could go a million different directions. I would say live bet this game. Not that you’re looking to sit back at home and live bet a UMass versus SLU game, but I think you have some serious runs in this game. If you’re up 15 either way, don’t feel comfortable about any lead.

T.J. Rives:

Ryan is watching us, and Ryan wants to know about… what did he say? I’m just looking… Georgia Tech. Thought on Georgia Tech in the game tonight? I lost where I was on the chat. Any thought on that tonight, on the Georgia Tech game this evening, guys? Miami-Georgia Tech, any thoughts? Miami off the win at Notre Dame, right?

Matty Cox:

Yeah. It’s a weird matchup. Georgia Tech, they play that really goofy zone and it can be kind of a thorn on the side of some offenses that rely heavily on spacing and pick and roll, which is what Miami’s offense is predicated on. So I don’t know, I wouldn’t feel confident in backing Miami, but I think Georgia Tech’s just not that good.

T.J. Rives:

Mid Major Matt, the Canes were road favorites, won and covered Notre Dame. 6.5 is BetUS line here at Georgia Tech. Any thoughts, if no play?

Matt Josephs:

I would lean to Georgia Tech, but I don’t love it. They haven’t played very well in their last two home games, so why would I expect them to play well in this? Well, Miami’s the better team. Maybe the lackluster, sleepy atmosphere that will probably be expected tonight will work in Georgia Tech’s favor. It works for Boston College. Boston College gets no fans for any of their games, and yet teams go to Chestnut Hill and lose consistently, so maybe it works tonight for Georgia Tech.

T.J. Rives:

Core 1024. Hello, thank you for watching on a Wednesday. Wants to know about Murray State and Bradley. In specific, he’s interested in the under. The total is 131. Matty Cox, you’re kind of located in the Midwest for us here. Any thoughts on that matchup, Murray State and Bradley?

Matty Cox:

Man, I wanted to back Bradley, but five is a big number on the road, especially going into Murray State, which is one of the better home courts in all of mid-major college basketball. They will have that place packed tonight. I know it’s just fresh off the brake so it may not have the same juice that it might in mid-February in a big conference game, but I think that’ll be a packed house. Murray State has talent. I just didn’t want to bet it because my gut was screaming Bradley early on, just the price is wrong for me to back Bradley.

T.J. Rives:

The question, Matt, also that the viewer is interested in is the total. He’s interested in the under for Bradley at 10-5, at 8-6 Murray State. Any thought there on that, Matt Joseph?

Matty Cox:

It’s been… oh, sorry.

T.J. Rives:

Or Matty Cox, either one.

Matty Cox:

It’s been bet up, so now’s the right time to bet the under. It opened at 129.5, now it’s up to 131.5. I kind of lean the over. I think the Steam has the right side, but if he’s got a stronger angle, which he probably does on the under than I do, then the timing is right to hop in now.

T.J. Rives:

Mid Major Matt, any thoughts, Bradley-Murray State, or you want to move on?

Matt Josephs:

You can move on. I think that Murray State’s always tough at home, as Matt just said. And look, these are a lot of teams that are getting their first looks at Murray State in Belmont, obviously, so it’s going to take them a little time. There’s not as much tape at least of them playing Murray State, so I think that could be a factor as well.

T.J. Rives:

Keep the live questions coming. A lot of you still firing away in the live chat, we see that. The guys are also typing back answers to you, but we’ll get some of these up on the screen as well. Several people are asking about DePaul and Butler, in particular Butler laying the eight. A couple people asking about Butler laying the points in the Big East matchup with DePaul. Matt Josephs, any thought if no play on that?

Matt Josephs:

That’s a lot of points for Butler to be laying at home. I know DePaul’s not the best, but Butler’s offense is very hot and cold this year. It feels like DePaul on the road though has not been very good. They won that Loyola Chicago game. Of course, that really wasn’t much of a road trip there, so hard to trust them. They have not played very well outside their own building.

T.J. Rives:

Matty Cox, any thought on that, DePaul and Butler or you want to move on?

Matty Cox:

Nothing. I think Butler takes care of business, but it’s a big number.

T.J. Rives:

Likewise, in the Big East, 8:30 Eastern Time on FS 1, very intriguing. UConn off their first loss of the season. They lost New Year’s Eve afternoon in Cincinnati to Xavier. They now play at Providence, and Providence and Ed Cooley keep finding ways to win games. They’re at home. UConn, the road favorite, guys. Any thought here about that game? Total right around 141 on the BetUS line. Any thought, UConn on the road off a loss at Providence? Matty Cox, any thought?

Matty Cox:

Never bet against Providence in home spots. This may be the best crowd of any game in college basketball all season. That’s no hyperbole. This place will be absolutely going bananas, and if we know Providence, we know they can win close games as well as anyone. Things just happen to go their way usually, and they’re well coached. They play hard. UConn’s kind of hit a wall. They’re still awesome, but we’ve seen them hit their peak, so to speak, the last couple weeks. I think Friars would be my lean here, but no official play.

T.J. Rives:

Friars also tend to make free throws. I’m just double checking here. They’re 73% as a free throw shooting team. Matt Josephs, they’ve been a big discussion point last year and this year about winning close games. Any thought here on this one tonight? Is UConn angry off their first loss of the season?

Matt Josephs:

Well, they’re angry. The thing that’ll be interesting here is Providence is six in offensive rebound percentage and UConn is six at preventing offensive rebounds, so Providence misses some shots, they usually get the rebounds. I don’t know if they necessarily do that tonight, but I’m not going to fade Providence at home here. Should be a fun game though, as everybody’s talking about.

T.J. Rives:

All right, a couple more here. Easy Baby 1980. Easy Baby’s complaining that I skip his questions. Bro, relax. We’re going to talk about North Carolina and Wake Forest right now. Here’s his question. He goes, “Guys, what do you think about North Carolina and Wake Forest?” Easy Baby, I’m taking care of you on the live show. Wake-North Carolina. Thoughts guys?

Matty Cox:

Man, I think over is the play here. I see a points… I don’t think we’re going to see a K State Texas repeat, but 152, while big sounds light. I think this game gets up and down, especially if UNC takes command early.

Matt Josephs:

Yeah. I-

T.J. Rives:

Matt Josephs, go ahead.

Matt Josephs:

If like the over as well. If your book has any sort of Armando Bacot numbers, this should be like a 22 and 10 type of night. I think Bacot, Wake Forest has nobody who can cover him. I think they feed him early and often.

T.J. Rives:

North Carolina, again, had been rolling and we said this in your absence yesterday, Matt Joseph’s. What in the name of Jeff Capel’s going on at Pitt? And they went ahead and won again last night. North Carolina, last time out, lost at Pitt. Are they angry at home, laying 10? Wake Forest already has the win at home over Duke, about an hour commute from Winston-Salem to the west to get into Chapel Hill for this matchup. We’ll see what happens in that one tonight. That’s a 9:00 Eastern Time game on the ACC Network. Time for another question or two. Get those in the live chat before we are done. William watching says, “In the ACC,” William wants to know thoughts on Clemson-Virginia Tech, particularly Virginia Tech laying the 6.5. Any thought from either of you on that? Matt Josephs, anything?

Matt Josephs:

Not particularly, no.

T.J. Rives:

Nothing from him. Matty Cox, anything on that or you just want to move along, on Clemson Va Tech?

Matty Cox:

Clemson’s too random, too whack-a-mole for me to trust, so no, nothing profound there.

T.J. Rives:

And we go over this all the time, but it almost seems like we need to repeat it at least once a week or two. You don’t have to bet every game. If you don’t have an angle, sometimes games are just better to gather information and stay away if you don’t have an angle. That’s what handicapping is, right? Illuminate on that some more, Mid Major Matt, that you’re not just betting games just to bet a game.

Matt Josephs:

Well, and Tech is such a tough team. Obviously they’re in my area, and if they’re hitting their threes, they’re going to beat anybody in the country. And also, we don’t know the stats of Hunter Cattoor. He’s a big piece of this team that doesn’t have enough depth as it is as a whole, and Clemson’s a team that they’ve struggled with historically. So the problem is do think Clemson’s going to go into Castle and win this game? I don’t think so, no, but then it’s tough deciding whether or not you think they’re going to lose by six or not. So they’re two teams that are really tough to figure out so far this season.

T.J. Rives:

Keith is watching us. Here we go into the weeds, kids. Fordham plus 1.5 and the money line, Keith wants to know. You guys may find it before me. Fordham and whom tonight? He’s interested in Fordham.

Matt Josephs:

Rhode Island.

T.J. Rives:

Anything? Fordham and Rhode Island. Anything here, Matty Cox?

Matty Cox:

Money’s come in pretty heavy on Rhode Island. I understand it. I think it’s a team that might be a buy low. And Fordham laid an egg against Davidson in their conference opener after a really strong non-conference debut. They got Darius Quisenberry back, he’s really their offensive engine at point guard. You could see maybe a better effort here from the Rams, but I kind of agree with the early money at Rhode Island minus 2.5

T.J. Rives:

Any thought there mid Major Matt, or do you want to move on on Fordham-Rhode Island?

Matt Josephs:

It’s hard to believe that Fordham’s 12-2, but then again, you look A, they’ve played nothing but home games pretty much, and B, they’ve played nothing of any substance. I can’t trust Fordham on the road yet, but this is not a good Rhode Island team. They don’t shoot the ball well, they don’t play defense well at times. I would lean to Fordham, but it’s one of those things where I need to see them start winning some road games before I want to jump on the Fordham bandwagon.

T.J. Rives:

I know the guys just put it up here. I was going to eventually get to it, but Mark wants to know if Mid Major Matt enjoyed his Christmas Eve and his New Year’s day with the Eagles losing. Did it make you want to lose your Christmas dinner that the Eagles have lost a couple of games or are you okay with that? You’ve moved on, you’re fine?

Matt Josephs:

The question was I would invited to a Christmas Eve dinner. I went, the game was on there, and I was selectively chaotic watching the game, so therefore I was on my good behavior.

T.J. Rives:

Did you grow a Turkey leg at the TV for that game with the Cowboys at any point? No. We cannot confirm that, that did not happen?

Matt Josephs:

We did not. We had meatballs, by the way. Meatballs and ham, so I wasn’t able to throw any of that stuff at the TV.

T.J. Rives:

Meatballs don’t tend to break things the same way that a Turkey leg or a chicken bone might-

Matt Josephs:

Correct.

T.J. Rives:

… if you’re throwing it, so that’s a good one on that, It’s Keaton is watching us. Thank you, before we go. Here It’s Keaton wants to know about Nevada-Colorado State. So we go all the way from Rhode Island all the way out to Nevada-Colorado State. Any thoughts on that one tonight? Nevada laying 4.5. They’re 12-3, Steve Alford’s team right now. Matty Cox, thought at all?

Matty Cox:

Man, I just can’t believe Nevada’s laying 4.5. It’s been bet down. The Rams have taken some money, you can understand why. Key health question marks for them tonight. They just haven’t been healthy all season, and after losing one of their primary big guys in the off-season, their defense up front has been non-existent, they’ve had some disjointed rotations in the back court. We’ve seen them at their best. They’re one of the top teams in this conference, but it’s just hard to trust them until they’re fully healthy and they have a repeated roster in rotation game after game. I think you’re trying to catch a little bit of a falling knife here, trying to back Colorado State, even though I think it’s a good price.

T.J. Rives:

Colorado State, I saw them with New Mexico late last week and they were never in it. They were down 25 the whole second half. They have since lost at home to San Jose State, to your point, Matt Cox. Mid Major Matt, any thought on them, Colorado State in Reno playing Nevada?

Matt Josephs:

It’s hard to get a read on Colorado State because of the injuries. They’ve had guys in and out, Jalen Lake being the latest guy who’s out. He’s dealing with the shoulder injury. They’ve had guys out due to illness and everything, so it’s a solid team but they’re not playing good basketball right now, so I certainly can’t back them on the road.

T.J. Rives:

The show has devolved. Keith. Put that comment back up there, Kevin. Keith brings up a good point about meatballs, that what they might not have in terms of impact, Keith says meatballs in terms of velocity would make up for that. If the audience didn’t see that, you can get a little more velocity on a meatball if you were throwing it. With that, there we go. Meatballs would be good to throw with the potential velocity. We like that. Very nice, Kevin, on the backup assist. Anything else? I think we are good. All right boys, let’s take a look at our best NCAAB prop bets here. Let’s recap, if you joined the show late, what the guys have for this evening with four official plays. All right, let’s go for it. Best bets here, gentlemen. What do we have, for this evening? Four different plays, two by each, or actually three by Mid Major Matt.

One of them on a side and an SEC game, two totals. Matty Cox is looking for another side. He was on an underdog in the Big 10 last night, he’s laying points tonight with Michigan at home. Have we covered it all, from games to which food makes better projectiles if you’re angry at the television? I think we’re good here for a Wednesday. Anything else in closing before tonight? It’s a hefty slate of games. Lots of conference games, lots of interest, lots of games on simultaneously. Duke at NC State. You got to be proud of us because there’s a Duke bias it seems like on every show. We didn’t talk about Duke for 35 minutes. Duke favored by five at NC State. Quickly before we’re gone, any thought on that guys?

Matty Cox:

Over.

T.J. Rives:

NC State is 11-4. Any thought?

Matty Cox:

Over, points.

T.J. Rives:

Over in that one, points, points, points? Mid Major Matt, anything?

Matt Josephs:

I’d rather, and with my last comments here just real quick, say interesting games in the A 10 tonight. If GW, who’s one of the more efficient offenses, can go into Richmond and do anything against that defense. And then VCU at Duquesne, Duquesne doesn’t turn the ball over. They’re going to make VCU run half court offense, which they don’t do very well, so I’ll be interested to see if Duquesne could take care of business against the Rams tonight.

T.J. Rives:

VCU 10-4, Duquesne 11-4. Sneaky good game there. That’s why we love Mid Major Matt bringing those up as well. Boys, thank you. Great job on the show today on all different subjects. Good luck with the plays tonight. Again, the show off to a 5-2 start for this week in the new year, 2023, baby. Mid Major Matt, thank you. Matty Cox, thank you. Kevin and everybody at BetUS, thank you. We thank you for watching the BetUS College Basketball Show.

 

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