Tuesday Night in CBB we will see the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers take on the North Texas Mean Green Eagles in the finals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The game is scheduled for a 7:00 pm tipoff and will be televised live on ESPN2.  Currently North Texas is favored by 2.5 points with the total being set at 133.5 for the game. An automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament hangs in the balance tonight, as the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers challenge the North Texas Mean Green in the title game of the 36th annual Sun Belt Conference Tournament in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Free Analysis: The seventh seed in this year's tourney, the Hilltoppers have taken home the trophy more often than any other member of the league, winning a total of seven titles. Western Kentucky, which last won it all in 2009 with a 64-56 win over South Alabama, appeared in the first round of the event on Saturday and defeated FIU by a 67-63 score. A day later, WKU delivered a 68-63 upset over second-seeded Arkansas-Little Rock, and then last night the team dismissed third-seeded Denver, 67-63. The Hilltoppers went just 7-9 in the regular season in the Sun Belt and they went 10-6 ATS in those games after starting out 1-4 ATS in their conference games. Right now WKU is on a 12-2 ATS run and they have gone 11-6 ATS away from home on the year. In last night's tight game with Denver, the Hilltoppers went from leading by eight points with just under 13 minutes to play in the first half to trailing by five barely five minutes later, but in the end WKU came up big when it needed to. The squad shot 55.9 percent from the floor for the game, including 5-of-8 behind the three-point line, and also converted 24-of-34 at the free- throw line, compared to the Pioneers who made only half as many at the charity stripe. WKU hasn't been much of an offensive team this season, scoring just 64.8 ppg, due to the fact that the unit is shooting just 39.5 percent from the floor and 30.7 percent on the perimeter, so Monday's night's performance from an accuracy standpoint was not the norm. Fant is one of two players scoring in double figures this year, his 10.1 ppg second only to Derrick Gordon (11.9 ppg) who made good on just 36.5 percent of his field goal chances. As for the fifth-seeded Mean Green, they are playing in the championship game for the third straight year, having lost to UALR a season ago (64-63) after defeating Troy in 2010 (66-63). North Texas, which has two crowns altogether from this tourney, topped Louisiana in the quarterfinals on Sunday, 65-62, and then slipped by Arkansas State, 76-72, in the semis last night in order to advance. North Texas has been very Strong ATS this year as they have gone 16-6-2 ATS overall and 10-3-2 ATS on the road. The Eagles are also on an impressive ATS run as well, going 13-2-2 ATS in their last 17 and they are 13-3-2 ATS with in the SunBelt this year. Even though the Mean Green and Arkansas State exchanged the lead 10 times and played to a tie on nine other occasions, ASU never led by more than three points. Every starter for North Texas stepped up and played hard at the offensive end of the floor, each scoring in double figures as they followed the lead set by Jacob Holmen who tallied 21 points, thanks to a perfect 5-of-5 shooting behind the three-point line. Mitchell is still the top performer in the paint for UNT with team highs of 14.6 points and 10.6 rebounds per contest, his 68 blocked shots also a team-best. The only other active double-digit scorer is Alzee Williams with 10.3 ppg and the fact that the Mean Green have gotten this far after suspending both Chris Jones (14.1 ppg, 81 assists) and Jordan Williams (10.9 ppg) after only 19 games due to academics is rather remarkable. These teams met just once during the regular season, with the Mean Green posting an 84-67 win in Denton, Texas back on Jan. 12 which means the all-time series now favors the Hilltoppers by a count of 12-5. The squads also clashed in last year's SBC Tournament where UNT cranked out an 81-62 victory.

Free Pick: I like the Mean Green Eagles in this one. To lose two DD scorers since January and still get this far is pretty amazing. Despite lose those two scorers North Texas has still been able to put up 71.7 ppg in conference play, which is up from their seasonal average of 70.3, so they have done better since the two suspensions. WKU is not great on defense as they have allowed 67.9 ppg overall (207th) and 68.4 ppg in conference play. North Texas has really played well on defense this year as they have allowed just 64.7 ppg (110th) on 40.5% shooting (43rd) overall while in conference play they have allowed 66.3 ppg on just 38.9% shooting. WKU has been better on offense of last (70.8 ppg in last 5), burt still they have averaged just 64.7 ppg overall, but they have still averaged just 62 ppg in their 6 neutral site games this year and 66.8 ppg on the road on a mery 39.3% shooting away from home overall. North Texas has a solid defensive edge and slight offensive edge in this one. WKU has 7 conference tournament titles, while North Texas has just two and they would like to close the gap a bit by winning this one. Look for a close one that but the Eagles will pull away late.  

Betting Strategies: College Basketball Conference Tournament
Host Marco D'Angelo and Pregame's own Johnny Detroit talk about how important the college basketball conference tournaments are for some teams and also discuss: Conference tournaments are purest handicap of the season and other various handicapping angles.