NCAA GEM OF THE DAY: 8-3 YTD
Week 1 (5-2)
Week 2 (3-1)
Tuesday's NCAA GEM OF THE DAY:
Virginia Tech -2.5 @ Iowa
I struggled with today's pick, as I've pretty much pegged Mich State to beat UNC since the beginning of the season, but after the Florida game and all the turnovers, combined with all the turnovers by UNC I decided to lay off Mich State for 2 reasons:
1) Carolina size advantage in the paint (Hanson, Wear, Thompson, Zeller, Ed Davis) gives UNC 5 big bodies inside. Adding Ginyard as a defensive gem play to stop Summers from pouring in 20+, could make this a tight game.
2) The pressure of the Big 10 to win this challenge combined with the public pounding of Mich State at +3/+2 and now at +1.5 in some places. Mich State has been quoted in the press this is the game they have been looking at since the season started. Carolina dished them a heavy loss @ Ford Field last year in the big 10 challenge and then ROFLSTOMPED them in the National Championship game. All the pressure resides on them to right the wrongs of last year. The crowd will be ruckus and as much of a UNC born fan I can't pull the trigger against them @ home even when I feel they may lose outright, they may show up tonight and eek 1 out, so I went looking for another game.
Vtech heads to "the barn" tonight to play an Iowa team that literally lives/dies by the 3 ball. 41-of-154 (27 percent) from long distance in 6 games an average of (25.6 attempts per game). Tech's defense against the 3 has been solid this year, holding teams under 21-of-71, 29.5 percent.
I believe the speed and pace of Vtech pushing the ball up and down with Malcolm Delaney will be the difference tonight as Iowa continues their struggles on the floor.
Side note: Iowa is letting students in free tonight, seems that only 8,400 have been showing up to the games lately and only a small fraction of them students, so expecting a little larger crowd tonight with some ticket giveaways, but nothing like Big 10 season attendance and certainly won't affect a team like Vtech who plays in a ton more opposing courts that are more difficult environments than Iowa.
NBA: I have to side with the Boston -4play here for a couple reasons: The bobcats are the bobcats and Boston knows the Bobcats come to play against Boston, Boston tired of fucking around with these guys, concentrated effort tonight from the C-men.
