There is a break in the action from the morning flurry of Line Movement so I have a few minutes to cover a few things. Those of you with questions, I promise that I am not ignoring them and will get to them later today....
College Hoops is such a weird animal and in so many respects and one of those weird things Mike covered yesterday. We are moving into that part of the season when you are going to start seeing, if not already, some percieved CBB Teams do amazing things. That means Outright +12 point dog winners more often than we have been seeing. Especially those with Motivated settings..
Why is this? Because public perception is that a Bad Team is Bad Team, is a BAD Team. But players grow, not in size, but in maturity. Those that subscribe to the theory "Never Bet on a Bad Team" are missing the boat. Point Guards that were turning the ball over early in the season are not now. Paint Players who were putting up prayers for shots are taking good shots and dishing off.
This sort of things is not happening with all schools but it is with those young squads who were Freshmen and Sophmores, but have grown up a year because they have pretty much played a year now. In addition, teams are also having chemistry that were not earlier. I could talk about this forever but the point is, you HAVE to look at what is going on NOW.
The reason why this is so important is that because of yearly stats, there are going to be some WAY Overinflated lines and looking for these "Maturing" Teams is going to give you some great opps the rest of the season..
Teams that Rebound Well and have a small TO Ratio are one's that perform well on the road. Pretty simple stuff. in both instances they will get more opportunities to score, and they will score more often. They also Don't give up as many cheap baskets and they don't allow 2nd chance baskets. Look for these teams when they travel and are getting some large chunk line. And once again, look for those teams that are doing those two things right, right now..
A Chat about Totals coming later..