Wednesday Two Free NCAAB Picks
Scott Morris | March 5, 2014
By: CarbonSports
Game #1: Nebraska @ Indiana (-5.5)
Indiana hasn’t forgotten about their worst collapse of the season against Nebraska in the 1st meeting and tonight’s their chance at redemption. Indiana went into halftime of that game up 32-19 but then watched as the Cornhuskers outscored them 41-23 in the 2nd half and won the game by five. Head coach Tom Crean will be reminding his Hoosiers team about that game all day and Indiana will be ready to perform for the full 40 minutes the way they did in the 1st half of that earlier meeting.
Indiana is playing some of their best basketball of the year right now as they are coming off two upset wins as home underdogs against Iowa and Ohio State. They won each game by at least seven points and the confidence they have from those victories will carry over into tonight. The Hoosiers are 14-3 SU at home and although they are only 9-7 ATS in those contests, they are 5-2 ATS in the last seven and 4-1 ATS in their last five.
Nebraska has been playing some good basketball of late themselves (6-1 SU and 5-2 ATS last seven), but after a defensive struggle (54-47) win against Northwestern over the weekend, the Cornhuskers find themselves in a tough spot tonight. Nebraska is 3-9 ATS after allowing less than 50 points and with Indiana looking to push the tempo and get this game going faster than Nebraska wants, the Cornhuskers will be chasing it all day. There will be no massive 2nd half comeback this time around for Nebraska and with only 56.6 points per road game this year (2-8 SU on the road) the Cornhuskers simply won’t have the offense to keep up.
Game #2: West Virginia @ Oklahoma (-8)
Like Indiana, Oklahoma is out for revenge tonight against a Mountaineers squad that beat them by five in OT back in early February. Neither team shot the ball particularly well that day and they still reached 177 points (162 before OT) so totals players might want to take a look at the high side of this total again tonight.
But it’s the side that’s got me interested as the Sooners look to finish their regular season at home with a strong win before going out on the road and likely beating up on a bad TCU team this weekend. Oklahoma is 4-0 ATS in their last four overall and 8-2 ATS in their last 10, so it appears as though they are peaking at the right time as they look to solidify their top 25 ranking. Closing out the year with two straight victories would ensure them of a top 25 spot and then no matter what happens in the Big 12 tournament, the Sooners would have their ticket to the big dance.
West Virginia has been bad on the road all season long as they’ve lost by double digits in each of their last three as visitors. They are 1-4 ATS in the last five with Oklahoma and have a 1-4 ATS record in their last five against a winning team. They managed to snap a three-game losing streak with a big win over the aforementioned TCU Horned Frogs over the weekend, but the Sooners are a few steps up in class and I don’t believe West Virginia will be able to step up their play again. West Virginia lost by 13 in their trip to Norman last year and I believe there will be a similar result tonight.
