Wanted to post this earlier before line move but got tied up.But major situational spot here as I am sure Louisville had rather not be in this tournament and little interest in playing smaller school from Kentucky.Norse narrowly missed Big Dance with upset loss to Cleveland.St,but this is a good team. Norse 22-9 with narrow losses to Memphis,Vermont,Texas A&m by combined 10 points.Louisville 4-7 since start of February and are 4-9 ATS in their last 13 non-conference games.I simply cant see a motivated Louisville team here and expect Upset.GL
Its certainly a motivational issue worth looking at this time of year. St.Mary's and Oklahoma.St both in similar spots tonight, but Louisville more compelling because of all the dirty laundry with program coupled with N.Kentucky being a live dog in my estimation.I simply cant pull trigger on SE Louisiana or Florida Gulf Coast as I feel both could get trampled by 20+ tonight by mentioned opponents. GL
Like spot here with Catamounts getting points.Catamounts 27-7 on year with 6 of those 7 losses by 4 or fewer points and those close losses were to the likes of Kentucky,Bucknell and Marquette.So Catamounts could easily come into this game with 33-1 record and wins over some solid NCAA tourney teams.They played in a weak American East conference, but out of conference performances and a ton of double digit wins in conference convince me they can hang and Win Su. GL
Simply cant see Hampton scoring a lot here.This line looks like it is loosely based on both teams combined scoring averages and I think Hampton will score well below that tonight. ND with large lead will likely slow pace.Under is 18-8 in Pirates last 26 non-conference games.Irish held vast majority on non conference opponents between 50-68 and should have solid chance at keeping Hampton in mid 50s to low 60s while maybe ending up 70-80 range themselves. I like this Under.
Vermont got some bad cheese after 1st 10 minutes or losing NCAA bid on last shot to Maryland-Baltimore deflated them.This was a solid team that got outscored 75-43 in last 3 quarters.Middle Tenn looked bad(lethargic) in their last few games and Kermit Davis leaving to Old Miss rumors abounded coming into this one. They will get Louisville next, so we will see if they will be playing for Kermit as he is leaving for Ole Miss after I think it is 16 year at Middle Tenn.