Iowa State vs Kansas State -2 O/U 134
This is going to be a spot play here. Iowa State did a good job handling TCU last night but it felt a little too easy being that the Frogs were still without Mike Miles JR. Iowa State has been a Jeckyl and Hyde team on their home road splits. At home, this team shoots 54% effective FG% but only 49% on the road. Kansas State also has some bad home road splits, but they are at least at home here where their only loss came to Texas a few weeks back by only three points. Kansas State has lost four of their last five games with three of them on the road. This is a big get up spot for them. I have both of these teams pretty equal on paper so I like this one up to -3.
Kansas State -3 – 2 stars
Duke vs Syracuse +1.5 O/U 139
I watch this game every year, but this game is a little different this time around being that it used to have two legendary coaches facing off in Coach K for The Blue Devils vs Jim Boeheim for the Orangemen. Syracuse isn’t what I would call a good team by any means and Kenpom seems to think so ranking them 89th in the nation. The Orange do not lay a lot of defense, but they do seem to have their moments on offense at home shooting a massive 54.1%. the Blue Devils on the other hand has changed face under coach Jon Scheyer. They play a slower game ranking 256th in average possession length, and they play solid defense ranking 31st in the nation while leaving he other side in the dust. The Blue Devils offense is the thing that worries me the most only ranking 231st in effective FG% while it doesn’t travel well on the road only shooting 46.9%. Where I worry the most about Syracuse is their rebounding on defense only ranking 345th in the nation, but I think that the Duke can be extra sloppy with the ball only ranking 233rd in turnovers could cause Syracuse to get some easy fast break points from steals. I don’t see much of a difference between this teams even though Kenpom has Duke about 49 spots above Syracuse. I will take the Cuse to win this one outright.
Syracuse +1.5 – 2 stars
