IC
4 Unit Play. Take James Madison +6.5 over Old Dominion (Thursday @ 7pm est). Let's ride the San Diego State win to another pod winner hopefully today. Give JMU a lot of credit. They went into Liberty and won by 23 and beat Mt. St. Marys at home by 11. Liberty was ranked outside the top 200 but they had just crushed Rider at home and JMU just waltzed in and won by 23 points on the road. This team is a top 125 team that faces a top 100 team within their own conference today in ODU. This team beat ODU by 8 on the road and most recently lost to ODU by 6. In games like these, often you see the team that lost the mots rencet meeting gets the revenge - you see this countless times in the conference tournament as well. You think to yourself, that's crazy, how did this team beat them in the regular season and now lose today? It's all motivation - and in a tournament such as this, where it's not the Dance, just another opportunity to play, motivation becomes more of a factor. I like how JMU shoots 75.7% from the line as compared to ODU who shoots 63.3% from the line. ODU keeps getting it barely covering against Belmont and the Citadel winning by 8 and 8. Keep in mind they were down to Belmont at half and most of the way. Now, they face an ODU team that has beat this team on the road before (then lost at home to this team) and is not intimidated from the opening tip. ODU has been pressing its luck a bit of late but I think despite if they win this game, JMU getting the 6.5 points is a very nice play here given that they shoot better free throws and heck, they have a 50% of winning this game outright so why not take the points here. The Road team is 7-2 ATS between these two squads of late.
4 Unit Play. Take Under 202.5 between Miami Heat @ Chicago Bulls (Thursday @ 8pm). I wrote an article about the myth of hoops consensus on the page today and if you get a chance check it out. I have changed my spreadsheets accordingly. As per today's play, let's ride the Under today in Chicago. If you are looking for another play, I took a long look at the Pistons today at home against the Lakers and a possible over there, but I laid off as the Lakers have some revenge coming into that game and they are playing strong basketball. I think the under here in Chicago is live. For starters, Derrick Rose is said to be questionable. Next, the Bulls have revenge against the Heat from their loss earlier this year when Wade hit the 3 point shot at the buzzer after stealing the ball. The Bulls are running just 7 deep right now as Kirk took over the point guard duties against the Pistons - and won. I understand the last contest between these two teams went over, but it also went into overtime sessions. There was 208 points scored in regulation in that game when the Bulls were an active 5 point dog. This game is a bit different as the Bulls are favored. The last time these two teams met in Chicago, the Heat won 95-93 and the game totaled at 188. Prior to that in Miami, the game totaled at 167 when these two teams met the day after Christmas. I think the total is placed as high as it is because of what happened in the last contest but these two teams are more of an under team when they face each other. The last 4 of 5 and 5 of 7 between these two have gone under. This is the last road game for Miami before they return home. This team just faced Indiana and comes off a very low scoring game that totaled 178 and that game's total was set at 204.5. Against Memphis, this team put up 94 points and the total closed at 176 from the line originally being set at 195. This team also played an Under at Cleveland (189), New Jersey (184) and Philly 162. The Bulls are just running 7 deep as well and I feel that this game will be a bit more methodical as the Bulls will run Tyrus Thomas, Gordon, Kirk, Salmons, Tim Thomas, Noah, Miller and Hunter. Note: Tyrus and Lindsay only played 4 minutes a peice roughly against the Pistons - so really, this team ran 6 guys for quite a bit of the game.
Good luck,
Indian Cowboy.
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35pm Est
