Steve Merril
NCAA Game of the Week
Tonight’s top NCAA play is Missouri -12.
Texas Tech trailed by 21 points in the second half last night before pulling an amazing comeback to defeat Texas A&M 88-83 as a 6½-point underdog. Making the comeback even more amazing is the fact Mike Singletary scored 29 straight points for the Red Raiders in the second half. Rest assured that Missouri will not allow this to happen tonight and the Tigers will be on alert after Tech’s comeback last night.
Texas Tech fits a negative 47-89 ATS situation which plays against teams coming off a SU underdog win and Missouri has the advantage of a bye. Highly seeded teams have historically been a strong play versus teams that had to play the previous day and Missouri fits a solid 44-19 ATS situation based on that premise. The Tigers are also coming off a season finale loss last Saturday and this qualifies Missouri in a strong 36-13 ATS bounce-back situation tonight.
We also get line value as my power ratings favor Missouri by 14 points and the Tigers match up well with a strong pressure defense that should cause problems for a fatigued Texas Tech squad that has exhibited turnover problems this season. This was extremely evident in the regular season meeting on January 24th when Missouri forced 29 turnovers and defeated Texas Tech 97-86. The final margin of just 11 points was misleading as Missouri still won easily, despite shooting just 5-for-20 (25%) from three-point range, while Texas Tech hit 37.5% from beyond the arc.