Plays for 1/15/03

[jimmymo]

One play on the overnight

SW Missouri St. (-12 1/2)

This team is starting to play well together and rebound the ball very well == the only game in their last five that they didn't have a double digit rebound margain was on the road against Creighton, a game Creighton was lucky to win == On the other hand, the Sycamores have been on the wrong side of some ugly rebound margains lately (giving up double digit offensive boards to their opponents in the last two -- those numbers really hurt) == I expect for SMS to control the glass on both ends and with 4 starters back from last year and starting to gel, I expect an easy 17+ point win and this one has the potential to get really ugly.

Back with more later and BOL

 

[jimmymo]

Louisville (-12) over e. carolina

Louisville is playing tremendous basketball of late, highlighted by a 9 point road victory at Kentucky two and a half weeks ago -- since then they have manhandled four straight opponents including a most recent 45 point road win at S. Florida. Tonight they travel to E. Carolina to face a Pirate squad that is somewhat flying under the public radar due to its cupcake schedule and the fact that it has played so few lined games. I give them credit for hanging tough against a decent UAB team, but I don't think they will be able to control the boards aginst the Cardinals as they did against the Blazers.

A couple of facts really stood out to me when capping this game. One, ECU is 262nd in the country in turnovers, giving up 17.2 per game -- and this is against one of the easiest schedules in Div. 1 basketball -- meaning they have not been able to take care of the basketball against bad teams. Now they face a team that has forced 20+ turnovers in 4 of their past 5 games, with Kentucky turning it over 15 times. Additionally, Louisville is leading the country in field goal percentage allowed at 35.1% -- While ECU may have had this one circled for some time and may show some early fire, I really see them struggling to score on a consistent basis -- their problems taking care of the basketball and strength of schedule will hurt them badly tonight -- Louisville gets this one done.


(3-0 last night; 3-0 ytd)

GL

 

[jimmymo]

Just a note that the Louisville/ECU game has been pulled from the board due to the questionable status of ECU's second leading scorer and rebounder, G. Mikulas -- Good news for us who jumped early and got this one at -12.

GL