Find out where our cappers believe that the best NCAA Basketball betting value lies tonight.
We kick off our Monday NCAA Basketball picks with two high profile teams taking the
court tonight. Fordham will head to Pittsburgh while Davidson will be taking on
New Mexico. Will we see any upsets tonight, or will the favorites hold their
own?
Fordham at Pittsburgh
The NCAA Basketball betting lines have opened Fordham as a
20.5 point dog, and I believe this is an overreaction based off of each team’s
season opener. Fordham had a bad loss to Texas State 86-76, while Pittsburgh
blew the doors off a weak Mount St Mary's team 80-48.
Now trust us, Fordham is not as bad as their first loss
would indicate. New players need time to mesh together, and things are always
rusty early in the year, so it is very hard to run off of a team’s opening
performance.
Fordham has one absolute beast of a player in Chris Gaston
and he may be the best player in the A-10, which is really saying something
considering the talent level in this conference. Gaston put up 19 points and 14
rebounds in their opening game, and last year he averaged 17 PPG and 9
rebounds, so one can only imagine how badly he is going to break loose this
year. He is an unstoppable force when the ball is in his hands and he has the
ability to carry a team on his back.
Meanwhile we just don't think the Pitt Panthers are as good
as the NCAA Basketball odds makers are making them out to be. Now we certainly
don't think Fordham is going to win this game SU but they will be able to keep
it in within this spread. Pittsburgh has been on the downfall since last year,
granted they have had injury problems, but Jamie Dixon’s words might be
starting to fall on deaf ears.
Last year was the first year Pitt didn't make the NCAAB
tourney in quite some time. What is even more concerning is the Panthers are
expecting big things from Lamar Patterson this year. However, in his opening
game he posted no points and looked lost out there. Outside of him and and Tray
Woodall, the Panthers just don't have that much talent.
Take the Points
Since coming over from Hofstra, head coach Tom Pecora knew
he was in for a big challenge in taking over a Fordham team who have finished
dead last in the A-10 for years. One thing about Pecora though, is he is a hell
of a coach and he's got this team going in the right direction. Look for Chris
Gaston to go off on this game, showing the coaches of the Big East how much of
a monster he truly is.
Some trends to consider
Fordham is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 non conference games
Pitt is 6-13 ATS in
their last 10 home games.
NCAA Basketball Picks: Fordham +20.5 is our play. Line available at 5Dimes.
Davidson vs New Mexico
Davidson will travel to one of the toughest places in
country to take on the New Mexico Lobos. NCAA Basketball odds makers have opened up Davidson a
6 point underdog.
About Davidson
Davidson returns most of their starters, and this group had
a tremendous season last year. Around this same time last year they went into
Allen Fieldhouse and knocked off the Kansas Jayhawks (who ended up in the
National Title game). I still give them credit, but at that time the Jayhawks were
struggling on offense and still trying to find their identity. Tyshawn Taylor
was a turnover machine, and the team was not nearly on the same level as they
were later in the season.
There is no doubt that Davidson head coach Bob Mckillop is
an outstanding coach and knows how to get best out of his players. The problem
we have with Davidson is their record always looks great and they always seem
to be a well oiled machine on offense, but their in conference schedule is
absolutely brutal. They play cup cakes virtually the entire season. When
stacked up with the big boys, they run into some problems and that is what we
expect to happen tonight.
New Mexico
The Lobos have the perfect pedigree to shut down this potent
Davidson offense. They are long, athletic, have tremendous speed and size.
Steve Alford is one of the best when it comes to team defense. Last year New
Mexico ranked 13th in the nation in scoring defense, limiting
opponents to just 59 points per game. They were also a machine on the glass,
pulling down almost 40 rebounds game, which was good enough for 14th
in the country. The Lobos will be bringing back PG, Kendall Williams who
averaged 12 points per game and dished out 142 assists in the '11-12 season.
Tony Snell also returns with his 11 PPG.
Lay the chalk
In the end, the Lobos size, length, speed and ability to
crash the boards is going to kill Davidson’s production. As we mentioned, The
Pit (NM home court) is one of the toughest places to play in all of basketball
and we just don't see Davidson coming in here and making a game out of this.
NCAA Basketball Picks: New
Mexico -6 is our play. Line available at Heritage