A nice free winner with Pittsburgh on Wednesday, a game even I had written off at one point. But, the 2H look-ahead-letdown-rest thing helped us out. Tulane helped us out. Butler is probably not going to help us out unless Creighton pulls a "L'ville" - we've got a 3* loaded for Thursday but unsure as to how or if to market it. We'll see what happens.
Notre Dame/Miami: The 'Canes might be in regression. Their only good win was over NC State, and how good was that after watching what UNC did to the Pack. If this were Notre Dame's first road game, I'd be hesitant, but they beat Pittsburgh on the road, and the impressive thing was that it was in overtime. That's experience and composure, which is tough to bet against. Add that to the fact that Miami beat them twice last season, and I do like Notre Dame here.
UCLA/Colorado: I almost always try to find ways to back the Buffs at home in the altitude, especially against running teams which will exacerbate that. Great value here since they've lost three straight, albeit all road games and two of the three against elite teams, Arizona and Utah. They beat Xavier here at home so there's no reason to think they can't hang withthe Bruins. Rather than go into what strengths and weaknesses there are - I'll say that the Bruins have a very thin bench, so if nothing else this is potentially a great 2H bet if the Bruins are up or it's close at the half.
SMU/Cincinnati: It seems rather odd to be looking at SMU +6 and not taking it - clearly there's a reason(s) for that. It's more than Larry Brown. If there's a reason for it, I don't know what it is. What I do know is that I simply can't take Cincinnati and their 64% FT shooting and worry about covering in the last minute, barring a blowout. SMU is quite capable of making three's - although it's not their typical MO - so I'm taking the under and the Mustangs, which is a split at worst. Two very slow paced teams that both play great defense.