Follow

The simplest reason Boston will win this game is that they have more to play for than Memphis does. The Celtics must win to keep their chance at the second seed alive, while Memphis will own their second seed regardless of the outcome. With Ja Morant’s sore knee likely reducing his playing time or keeping him off the court entirely, the Grizzlies will have a reduced quality offense against the NBA’s best defensive team.

***UNDER 224.5*** The total has finished under in 7 of San Antonio's last 10 games. The Spurs could be without their leading scorer Dejounte Murray and will be completing a back-to-back. Dallas will be playing without its leading scorer Luka Doncic and the Mavericks are second in the NBA in points allowed at 104.5 points per game.

Except for one random explosion against Florida in mid-October, LSU has had a lot of trouble running the ball for the vast majority of the past two seasons. And over its last five games, Texas A&M's secondary has allowed an average of 150.2 passing yards with two passing touchdowns against five interceptions, and one of those touchdowns came with 12 seconds remaining in a 44-14 blowout of South Carolina.

Getting A&M in this spot inside of a touchdown is the right side. The Aggies will clamp down on defense and LSU will fail to qualify for a bowl this season.

Prediction: Texas A&M 27, LSU 14

Even though Syracuse is desperately trying to become bowl eligible and Pittsburgh has already clinched its spot in the ACC championship, I think the Panthers could win this game in a blowout....should they choose.

When Syracuse rushes for at least 200 yards, it is 5-2 and has averaged just under 35 points per game. When it doesn't reach 200 yards on the ground, though, Syracuse is 0-4 and averages 10.3 points. And Pitt has yet to allow an opponent to rush for even 165 yards in a game this season. So do the math.

Meanwhile, Syracuse has allowed at least 33 points in five of its last seven games, and Pittsburgh has the third-highest-scoring offense in the country. You can't consider playing Syracuse the way they have looked on offense the last 2 weeks - laying the points with Pitt.

Prediction: Pittsburgh 41, Syracuse 17

Both Pitt and VT have played only one conference game thus far, but the winner of this one will get to hop into the driver's seat for the Coastal Division's spot in the ACC championship, as the rest of the division has been pretty much a hot mess. The Hokies have been respectable on defense this season, but they're going to have their hands full with a Panthers offense that is leading the nation in scoring. Based on both resumes I just think Pitt is the better team and the Panther offense will be too much for VT over four quarters. Laying the 5 points.

Prediction: Pitt 35, Virginia Tech 27

Notre Dame played well against Purdue and covered last week, but it wasn't an easy cover. Twice in the fourth quarter, the Boilermakers had the ball trailing by seven and statistically Purdue outgained ND on offense. But ND offense capitalized on a few big plays with touchdowns of 39, 51 and 62 yards.

But don't expect these big plays Saturday against an excellent Wisconsin defense, plus Jack Coen is a Wisconsin transfer so you can bet the Badger defense will know his tendencies.

This game will be a battle in the trenches and my money is on the Badgers offensive line to control line of scrimmage.

Notre Dame fans are going to think I hate them (I don't) because I also picked Purdue to win last week, but I like Wisconsin by double digits in this one and Notre Dame is finally exposed for what they are.

Prediction: Wisconsin 31, Notre Dame 17

With Holiday and P.J. Tucker the Bucks have committed to defense and it’s paid off. They kept the Hawks in check the last two games while Middleton found his touch in Game 3. The Bucks showed how dangerous they can be in Game 2 and a furious rally in Game 3. Plus Trae Young not 100% after tweaking his ankle. Bottomline: The Bucks have a 5th gear that ATL doesn't have and seem to have found something on defense.

The Mets offense hasn’t been great this season but they face Charlie Morton who has struggled against basically everybody. This should be closer to a pick em' imo. #Mets

Karl-Anthony Towns Over 12 rebounds (+140) - The Pistons have allowed opposing centers to earn at least 14 rebounds in their last three games (Jonas Valanciunas, Dwight Howard, Nikola Vucevic). Karl-Anthony Towns may only average 10.6 rebounds per game this season, but I think this is the perfect spot for him to dominate the boards. Getting +140 odds put me over the top here.

Sacramento is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games, but Indiana has been lighting up the score board offensively. The Pacers are worth a look as the Kings should have road fatigue on the quick turn around after flying in from OKC early this morning.

Florida is reportedly starting Bobby Booshay at receiver tonight, but I think Trask and #1 passing offense of Florida finds a way. Expect Kyle Pitts at tight end to have a big night. Florida wins 35-34.

Ducks are ranked 25th in KenPom and Oregon 70th so this spread feels about right when looking at the numbers. But I like the Dons here tonight, they have been competitive in every game so far (except for the 13-point loss to Rhode Island in game two) and have posted some solid offensive numbers over their first half-dozen outings. As long as the Dons shoot well tonight they could put a scare into the Ducks.

So what did Colorado do last week against UCLA? They ran for 264 yards and passed for 261 yards. Forget the turnovers, but the Bruins are still awful, especially on defense. Cal at least has a strong defense and should be able to produce against that porous Bruins' defense.

West Virginia coming off of a tough road loss at Texas Tech but the Raiders are better than advertised. Jarrett Doege has looked great this season at QB for the Mountaineers but his receivers didn't help him much last week with more than a half dozen dropped passes. KSU has played well this year but have been inefficient passing the ball w/o Skylar Thompson at the helm. And the Mountaineers are a different team at home. WVU -5 and OVER 45.5

The best defensive unit for both teams is their secondary. Last week, Iowa and Northwestern's (NW) secondary made up over 50% of total team
tackles. In addition, Iowa's secondary had 2 interceptions and NW had 3. The defensive lines for Iowa and NW only had 2 sacks which is extremely worrisome for Iowa since Purdue threw the ball 50 times.

On the offensive side, both teams like to run the football. Based on how many times Purdue's running back got through to the secondary last week, NW will limit mistakes handing off the football. Iowa will also try to limit mistakes of first year quarterback Petras by running the ball.

Bottom line: If Kinnick was packed, it would be an easy Iowa pick at line probably around 5. Since it's not, the best value pick is NW ML. The safest pick is teasing NW to +8.5 and U52. I'm ripping both.

This game probably isn't on your radar but I like Mercer and the points here. Mercer is a lesser known brand but they did prove they could move the ball on Jacksonville State, albeit in a loss, in its only game of the season. The Bears are probably going to have trouble stopping Army’s ground attack, but hopefully they studied tape of The Citadel game very closely. That’s the playbook on how to keep the Black Knights within arm’s length. Even if Mercer can't slow Army's offense, I think the Bears offense does enough to stay inside of this number today.

Both teams are terrible and few offensive weapons on the field tonight. I think it's an ugly 17-14 type of game either way.

Tampa Bay showed great heart in turning back a determined Cheatstros team. They are not to be underestimated. Dodgers showed similar heart. Fried and Anderson did not pitch badly in Games 6 and 7, the Dodgers simply exerted their will. This looks like a great series, I've got Dodgers in 6.

My prediction tonight? Dodgers .

Boy this is a big number. I'll take Jim Schwartz and the Philly D to do enough to slow down the Ravens ground game and force Lamar into passing situations.

My prediction would look a lot different if the 49ers were healthy, but they aren’t — not even close. Still, they’re a very deep team and it would be foolish to believe the Giants will blow them out of the water. That’s not going to happen, but a thinned out roster- especially the losses of Nick Bosa, Dee Ford and George Kittle.

The Giants lost Saquon Barkley for the season with a torn ACL, but signed former Atlanta Falcons running back Devonta Freeman. With a badly injured 49ers team missing a lot of stars, plus with the game at home, the Giants should be able to get their first win of the 2020 season.

Tennessee and Minnesota both have some key injuries, but the Vikings are easily more injury-riddled. Both offenses will have their way on the ground and through the air, leading to a shootout. Tennessee does just enough on defense with some big plays late to secure its third win of the season.

The Los Angeles Lakers are DONE! Lebron And AD are spent...those two SLACKERS have never had to give this much EFFORT consistently in the playoffs...that's why Lebron only won 3 out of 8 Finals...He's a slacker by nature. Denver will take this game even easier than they took the last one...the wins will come EASIER and EASIER for Denver until the series ends with Denver 4 wins to Lakers 2. You heard it here first.

DENV 115
LAL 105

Seems like the NBA is rigging it for the Lakers letting them finish their series first by delaying the ECF

Raining 3s again

Dartmouth has a little momentum after winning 2 straight but Pennsylvania is the much better of these teams. Pennsylvania already beat Dartmouth by eight points earlier this month, and I think they get the sweep. The Quakers average 74.2 points per game while the Big Green only put up 64.7 points an outing themselves.

I like Quinnipiac here at home.. It has been a major struggle of late for both of these teams but Quinnipiac is 7-4 both SU and ATS at home. Their last good performance came on Canisius home floor where Quinnipiac was able to get a 90-73 victory. I don't see Canisius being able to come into hostile territory and be able to get a win here especially when they only have 2 wins SU on the road this year. I'll take Quinnipiac here.

Total pillow fight of a game - but I like the points here. Ben Vander Plas and Jason Preston are two of the more underrated scorers in the conference and they are going to keep it tight and wouldn't surprise me to see the Bobcats win outright.

Over 21 - SECOND HALF.