Nova Report
After a couple of days off, the Cats seemingly have an easy game but NO game against a Big Five opponent is easy. These Philly teams always go at it. So?at 6:00 pm eastern Nova battles the La Salle Explorers in the Palestra. The line is Nova-18.5/140.
La Salle is 2-2 playing in very close games in all 4. Their lead scorer came from Louisville, Josh Nickelberry, a streaky shooter who averages 12 a game. The rest of the starters all hover around 10 ppg. And, for Nova, these guys aren?t tall with 6?6? being the tallest. The Explorers turn the ball over a lot, shoot less than 65% from the charity stripe and are not good defenders of the 3.
The Wildcats are coming off a disappointing loss to Purdue. Many theories about why they lost to both UCLA and Purdue. To me, it sure looks like depth is the issue. Nova has some talented Freshman but with the brutal schedule they play, they have seen few minutes. Today, they should play. This is good for player development but may leave the back door open from a betting perspective.
What will happen: the Explorer intensity will be evident from the beginning. Coach Wright will want to get off to a quick start to get the crowd out of the game. That SHOULD happen. The game should be reasonably close for a little while but even Nova?s freshman are better than most of LaSalle?s starters. Nova should get up by 25 in the second half and then, I hope, hold on to cover in garbage time.
My Pick: Nova -18 (buying hook)
Nova Record: 2-3