Conference Tourney News and Notes For the Sports Bettor

Here are some sharp player news and notes from the staff of OffshoreInsiders.com    

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Providence-West Virginia

West Virginia is 4-1 SU on neutral courts. However two of the neutral court wins were in Charleston, West Virginia. Stevie Vincent of BetOnSports360.com reminds us, “One of the biggest blunders that square player makes is handicapping a neutral court as if it is a road game.” The square may overreact to West Virginia’s 2-6 road Big East mark.

St. John’s-Marquette

Although St. John’s will have the closest of any team to a home court advantage, they will enter this game without their leading scorer and rebounder Lamont Hamilton. He is a first-team all-Big East selection.

UAB-Marshall

It’s the seventh meeting in the last four years with UAB holding a 4-2 edge.  However the teams split this year and the six games were decided by a total of just 40 points.

Arizona State-Washington

Washington enters with great momentum having beaten USC and UCLA.  However the pressure is on as they likely will have to win four games in four days to make the NCAA Tournament. Seventeen of Washington’s 18 wins have come at home.  Their only win away from home though was to ASU 66-61. This game is at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.  

Arizona State was competitive down the stretch losing by a combined 10 points to Washington State, Arizona and UCLA.

Oregon State-California

The Golden Bears won both meetings, but each went to the last shot of regulation, one going to overtime.

Richmond-Fordham

Richmond did not play a neutral game, but went 2-11 SU on the road.  Fordham enters on a four-game winning streak in which their offense got progressively better culminating in two games in which they shot 54.9 percent or better.

SMU-Southern Miss

Cy McCormick of MasterLockLine.com says the key to finding dark horses in March is betting on teams that lost a lot of close games during the regular season. SMU has six conference losses by five-points or less. The Mustangs are 2-0 on neutral sites beating Illinois State and McNeese State.

We will keep an eye on game day injury information.  SMU closed out the year without three key players who could be back: Bamba Fall, Derrick Roberts and Devon Pearson. Fall is their best defensive player.

St. Louis-Duquesne

After being buoyed by changing to an up-tempo attack, the Dukes have dropped their last seven. Duquesne did win the only meeting this year to go to 4-1 all-time in the series. Over/under bettors will look to see which team can set the pace.  Duquesne is an up-tempo team while the Bilikens play at a snail’s pace.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Michigan State-Northwestern

Points will be tough to come by as Michigan State led the conference is virtually every defensive category, only once in 31 games allowing more than 47 percent. Northwestern is fourth in points per game defense, but ninth in the more accurate field goal percentage defense. Six of MSU’s 10 losses were by seven or fewer points.

Joe Duffy’s sports betting selections are at www.GodsTips.com.  In his scorephone days as “JD of the ACC” he was given the moniker of “Mr. March” for his 18 hour days and unparallel winning.