Manhattan -4
Manhattan (7-1) takes on Fordham tonight in the first round of the ECAC Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden. The winner plays the winner of tonight's Seton Hall - Iona game.
Manhattan Coach Bobby Gonzalez is 4-0 at the Garden since joining the Jaspers in `99, including a 85-68 win over St John's earlier this season.
Fordham has a strong tradition of good teams but IMO Gonzalez will have Manhattan ready to avenge last years 83-78 Ram victory on Manhattan's home court.
Also, Coach Gonzalez would like to take the title of The City's top team which would be a tremendous aid in recruiting.
Seton Hall should win the nightcap but they might look past Iona to Fridays final. I'm not confident they'll cover the 9.5 points.
Also, I have a lean to:
Columbia +21
Columbia has spent the last ten days in Hawaii and will return to the West Coast today to play UCLA in the Pauley Pavillion.
IMO #17 UCLA will be looking past this game to their Saturday night game vs #20 Georgetown.
Columbia has all five starters back from last year's team which was ranked #6 in the nation in scoring defense.
If Columbia's 6-10 C Chris Wiedemann can stay out of foul trouble, the Lion's senior forward Craig Austin (2001 Ivy player of the year) can keep what I expect will be a low scoring game within 20.
gl
Manhattan (7-1) takes on Fordham tonight in the first round of the ECAC Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden. The winner plays the winner of tonight's Seton Hall - Iona game.
Manhattan Coach Bobby Gonzalez is 4-0 at the Garden since joining the Jaspers in `99, including a 85-68 win over St John's earlier this season.
Fordham has a strong tradition of good teams but IMO Gonzalez will have Manhattan ready to avenge last years 83-78 Ram victory on Manhattan's home court.
Also, Coach Gonzalez would like to take the title of The City's top team which would be a tremendous aid in recruiting.
Seton Hall should win the nightcap but they might look past Iona to Fridays final. I'm not confident they'll cover the 9.5 points.
Also, I have a lean to:
Columbia +21
Columbia has spent the last ten days in Hawaii and will return to the West Coast today to play UCLA in the Pauley Pavillion.
IMO #17 UCLA will be looking past this game to their Saturday night game vs #20 Georgetown.
Columbia has all five starters back from last year's team which was ranked #6 in the nation in scoring defense.
If Columbia's 6-10 C Chris Wiedemann can stay out of foul trouble, the Lion's senior forward Craig Austin (2001 Ivy player of the year) can keep what I expect will be a low scoring game within 20.
gl
