nice catch with tennessee chat last night with the straight and moneyline plays both coming in, and oregon state completing the sweep. see two plays for friday, although they're not going to be popular:
houston +13: coach ray mccallum is on the way out as the cougars have been another major disappointment this season, but they seem to catch st louis in a good spot. billiken leading scorer reggie bryant will miss tonight's game to be with his critically ill father. also, st louis starting center tom frericks will miss tonight with a shoulder injury. that's 25 ppg missing from a team that has averaged less than 60 ppg over the last ten games. have to wonder where the points will be made up, as st louis has played a seven man rotation all year and has no other nonstarter on the team averaging more than a bucket or so a game. bryant and frericks also account for more than a third of st louis's 31 rebounds per game; no other sub averaged more than one carom a game.
fwiw, houston is still fighting for a c-usa tourney spot. a good tourney showing could conceivably save mccallum's job because of money problems buying out his contract; anything less and he is likely gone for sure.
in this situation, i expect the cougars to fight down to the end in a game that threatens to play out in the low 110's. 13 points is pretty large in such a game, and enough to make me take the ugly road dog. though i'm not playing it (as i'm snakebit this year on totals), the under looks pretty solid also.
idaho +5-: i can hear the moans from here from readers who can't wait to play utah state, the class of the big west. hard to fault them - the aggies are nationally ranked with sizzling 25-2 record, including 9-2 s/u, 7-4 ats on the road. but idaho has been quietly putting together a surprising run of their own, winning eight of their last ten, 8-1-1 ats in that stretch, enough to push them into contention for third in the conference.
someone posted up a thread inquiring about the senior night effect on capping the other day; this is a game where i think senior night could be a significant factor. three vandal seniors - dwayne williams, tyrone hayes, and rashad powell - are the backbone of this team. they have never beaten the aggies in moscow in their career; however, they have played them well enough of late to go 3-1-1 ats in the last five meetings, including a one point win last year in logan.
also, this the first time in 25 years a ranked team has played in the cowan spectrum. all these factors lead me to forecast a solid effort tonight from the vandals, at least enough to stay within the number.
right now i'm strongly leaning to unc-w. james madison looks to be spiraling downward after a 20 point loss at lowly towson state. dukes' coach sherman dillard is another coach on the way out. things must be gettng a little testy in harrisonburg, as yesterday dillard dismissed asst coach kevin baggett on the eve of the caa tournament. pretty odd considering everyone on the staff will be scanning the want ads in a week or two. it's hard to imagine jmu getting their act together well enough to compete in this situation. my reservation is this uncw team is a little down from years past, and may not be reliable enough to hold a dd win. i'll update later.
glta
houston +13: coach ray mccallum is on the way out as the cougars have been another major disappointment this season, but they seem to catch st louis in a good spot. billiken leading scorer reggie bryant will miss tonight's game to be with his critically ill father. also, st louis starting center tom frericks will miss tonight with a shoulder injury. that's 25 ppg missing from a team that has averaged less than 60 ppg over the last ten games. have to wonder where the points will be made up, as st louis has played a seven man rotation all year and has no other nonstarter on the team averaging more than a bucket or so a game. bryant and frericks also account for more than a third of st louis's 31 rebounds per game; no other sub averaged more than one carom a game.
fwiw, houston is still fighting for a c-usa tourney spot. a good tourney showing could conceivably save mccallum's job because of money problems buying out his contract; anything less and he is likely gone for sure.
in this situation, i expect the cougars to fight down to the end in a game that threatens to play out in the low 110's. 13 points is pretty large in such a game, and enough to make me take the ugly road dog. though i'm not playing it (as i'm snakebit this year on totals), the under looks pretty solid also.
idaho +5-: i can hear the moans from here from readers who can't wait to play utah state, the class of the big west. hard to fault them - the aggies are nationally ranked with sizzling 25-2 record, including 9-2 s/u, 7-4 ats on the road. but idaho has been quietly putting together a surprising run of their own, winning eight of their last ten, 8-1-1 ats in that stretch, enough to push them into contention for third in the conference.
someone posted up a thread inquiring about the senior night effect on capping the other day; this is a game where i think senior night could be a significant factor. three vandal seniors - dwayne williams, tyrone hayes, and rashad powell - are the backbone of this team. they have never beaten the aggies in moscow in their career; however, they have played them well enough of late to go 3-1-1 ats in the last five meetings, including a one point win last year in logan.
also, this the first time in 25 years a ranked team has played in the cowan spectrum. all these factors lead me to forecast a solid effort tonight from the vandals, at least enough to stay within the number.
right now i'm strongly leaning to unc-w. james madison looks to be spiraling downward after a 20 point loss at lowly towson state. dukes' coach sherman dillard is another coach on the way out. things must be gettng a little testy in harrisonburg, as yesterday dillard dismissed asst coach kevin baggett on the eve of the caa tournament. pretty odd considering everyone on the staff will be scanning the want ads in a week or two. it's hard to imagine jmu getting their act together well enough to compete in this situation. my reservation is this uncw team is a little down from years past, and may not be reliable enough to hold a dd win. i'll update later.
glta
