Kansas vs West Virginia -2.5 O/U 142
- These teams already played once at Kansas where West Virginia lost the game from 3 point land shooting 35% to Kansas’s 43%.
- Since that game, West Virginia lost their second best rebounder to injury in Oscar Tshiebwe to ankle injury but they had 6 or 7 games since then to make adjustments.
- Other than that, these teams are pretty equal in what they do this year with Kansas actually having the slightly better defense and West Virginia having the slightly better offense.
- I think that the Stars in this game like Derek Culver, Miles McBride for West Virginia and Jalen Wilson and Marcus Garrett will decide the game.
- In saying that, I also think that this game might be won in 3 point land where West Virginia has an edge shooting
- My Concern for the Mountaineers is that during the last 3 years, they only beat Kansas 1 time and it might seem like the Jayhawks have their number, but I think in a strange Covid year and at the short number, you get some value on WV a win here with them in such a big home game and the Mountaineers better at shooting the 3.
West Virginia -2.5 – 2 stars
This should be an interesting matchup here in the ACC. Syracuse plays faster and Clemson plays slower. Clemson will pick up the pace though if they are hitting shots and find a groove or maybe are way behind in the game. The teams that beat Clemson over the past month or so have found Clemson’s weakness. That weakness is defending the 3 pointer. They are bad at it and only rank 225th in the league defending it. The 2 wins that Clemson had recently vs Louisville and North Carolina have one thing in common that both of those teams are terrible at shooting the 3. NC only ranks 290th at 30.1% from 3 while Louisville ranks 253rd at 31.9% from the arc. The good news for Clemson here is that Syracuse also can’t shoot the 3 ranking 246th at 31%. Syracuse also struggles when facing teams with a good defense such as Virginia and North Carolina. Syracuse gives up 80 points per game on the road.
Clemson -3 – 2 stars
Northwestern vs Purdue -7 O/U 137.5
Purdue is coming off of a tough loss at Maryland where many of their fans were pretty upset with that last call in the game. I imagine the players can’t be too happy themselves about it and will be wanting to put up a big score today. The good news for Purdue is that Sasha Stephanovic is back from a Covid pause and he will be dying to light it up from 3 point land. Northwestern is a very fast paced team, and usually when on the road, they can’t hit shots which means that they give the other team extra possessions. The big thing for me here is that I wonder how Michigan State which is an inferior team to Purdue is laying 12 at home to Nebraska when Purdue is only laying 7 at home vs a team that isn’t much better than Nebraska. I have Purdue winning by 10 here minimum.
Purdue -7 – 2 stars
