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College Basketball

Saturday’s Late Tips

VegasInsider Staff
VegasInsider Staff Sports Betting Expert
9 minute read
Editor's note: Brian Edwards owns a 34-19 record (64.2%, +13.61 Units) on his guaranteed plays since Dec. 8, so don't miss out on tonight's pay-if-it-wins-only selection!

**West Virginia at Kansas**

-- When these teams met in Morgantown on Jan. 15, Kansas (20-6 straight up, 12-12-1 against the spread) trailed by as many as 16 in the first half and by 13 at halftime. Nevertheless, Bill Self’s team rallied to collect a 71-66 win as a 5.5-point road underdog. Sviatoslav Mykhailluk produced 17 points, five assists, four rebounds and a pair of steals, while Devonte’ Graham added 16 points, six assists and three steals. Graham buried 3-of-6 attempts from 3-point land, and Udok Azubuike contributed 10 points and nine rebounds before fouling out after logging only 20 minutes of playing time. In the losing effort, Sagaba Konate had 16 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots. Esa Ahmad finished with 15 points and five boards, while Jevon Carter had 14 points and four assists.

-- [...] opened KU as a four-point favorite late Friday afternoon.

-- Kansas is 11-3 SU and 6-6 ATS at home this year.

-- Kansas is No. 9 in the RPI Rankings and 13th in the latest Top 25 poll from the Associated Press. KU owns a 6-4 record against the Top 50 and a 16-6 mark versus the Top 100. The Jayhawks have road wins at TCU, at WVU, at Nebraska, at Texas, at Kansas State and at Iowa State, in addition to neutral-court scalps of Kentucky, Syracuse and Stanford. They own home victories over the likes of Texas A&M, TCU, Baylor, K-State and Iowa State.

-- KU won an 83-77 decision Tuesday night at Iowa State, but the Cyclones took the cash as 6.5-point home underdogs. All five KU starters were in double figures led by Azubuike’s 19 points and three blocked shots. Malik Newman, the transfer from Mississippi State, finished with 17 points, six rebounds and four assists, while Graham had 13 points, six rebounds and five assists without a turnover.

-- Graham paces KU in scoring (17.5 points per game), assists (7.2 APG) and steals (1.7 SPG), and the senior guard has hit 41.4 percent of his treys and 82.7 percent of his free-throw attempts. Azubuike (13.9 PPG) leads the Jayhawks in rebounding (7.1 RPG) and field-goal percentage (76.5%), while Mykhailuk is averaging 15.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.

-- West Virginia went through a miserable 1-5 SU stretch, including a one-point loss at Texas Tech and a home loss to Kentucky when WVU allowed a 17-point first-half lead to get away. The six-game slump was capped by a blowout defeat to Iowa State in Ames. Since then, though, the Mountaineers have recovered to go 3-1 both SU and ATS in their past four contests.

-- West Virginia captured an 82-66 win over TCU on Monday night as an eight-point home favorite. The Horned Frogs raced out to a 13-5 lead early, but it was all Mountaineers the rest of the way. Teddy Allen came off the bench to score a team-best 16 points and grab six rebounds. Daxter Miles Jr. added 13 points, while Wesley Harris contributed 11 points on 3-of-3 shooting from downtown. Carter finished with nine points and nine assists.

-- WVU is No. 31 in the RPI and No. 20 in the latest AP rankings. Bob Huggins’s squad is 4-4 versus the RPI Top 25, 5-5 against the Top 50 and 11-7 versus the Top 100. The Mountaineers have home wins over Virginia, Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas and Kansas State, in addition to neutral-court victories over Missouri and UCF (when Tacko Fall was healthy). They have road W’s at Oklahoma, at Oklahoma State and at Kansas State.

-- WVU has posted a 4-3 record both SU and ATS in its seven road assignments.

-- Carter, the program’s stalwart senior point guard who is probably the nation’s premier on-the-ball defender, leads WVU in scoring (16.9 PPG), assists (6.8 APG) and steals (3.1 SPG). Konate paces the Mountaineers in rebounding (7.9 RPG), FG percentage (52.3%) and blocked shots (3.2 BPG).

-- KU’s seemingly endless streak of Big 12 regular-season titles in jeopardy over the next two weeks. Texas Tech is currently atop the league standings with its 10-3 conference ledger, with KU trailing by one game at 9-4. WVU is in third place with an 8-5 Big 12 record.

-- The ‘under’ is 12-10 overall for WVU, 4-3 in its road assignments.

-- The ‘under’ is 14-11 overall for KU after cashing in seven of its past 10 games, but the Jayhawks have seen the ‘over’ cash at an 8-5 clip in their home outings.

-- ESPN will have the broadcast at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.

**North Carolina at Louisville**

-- [...] opened Louisville (18-8 SU, 13-10-1 ATS) as a one-point home favorite late Friday afternoon.

-- U of L has compiled a 14-3 SU record and an 8-7 ATS mark at home this year. The Cardinals ended a three-game losing streak two Thursdays ago by smashing Ga. Tech 77-54 as seven-point home ‘chalk.’ Then on Sunday, they dealt out a 94-60 shellacking at Pittsburgh (think those fans miss Jamie Dixon?!) as 11-point road favorites. V.J. King, Malik Williams and Anas Mahmoud scored 14 points apiece to pace U of L.

-- Louisville is No. 29 at KenPom.com and No. 38 in the RPI, but it sure does seem like a lot of other teams who are in the 40s and 50s of the RPI have better resumes. U of L is winless in five games against the RPI Top 25 and 1-8 versus the Top 50. The best win on the Cardinals’ profile is a 73-69 victory at FSU (RPI #35) in which they trailed by double digits at intermission. They’re 5-8 against the Top 100, collecting home wins over Boston College, Va. Tech and Southern Illinois, in addition to a win at Notre Dame.

-- Louisville certainly has its chances looming to pick up notable victories. The Cardinals’ last five games look like this: vs. UNC (RPI #8), at Duke (#5), at Va. Tech (#58) vs. UVA (#1) and at N.C. State (#60).

-- U of L junior forward Deng Adel is averaging 15.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game, but he’s missed back-to-back game with an ankle injury. Adel is listed as ‘probable’ vs. UNC.

-- Quentin Snyder (12.1 PPG) is the team’s second-leading scorer who has a 106/41 assist-to-turnover ratio, while Ray Spalding (11.4) is also scoring in double figures and pulling down 8.8 rebounds per game.

-- North Carolina (20-7 SU, 15-10-1 ATS) is in fourth place in the ACC with its 9-5 conference record. The Tar Heels trail loop-leading UVA by four games, while U of L is in fifth with its 8-5 ACC ledger.

-- UNC is No. 8 in the RPI and No. 14 in the latest AP poll. The Tar Heels are 4-3 against the RPI Top 25, 6-4 versus the Top 50 and 13-6 against the Top 100. They have road wins at Tennessee, at Stanford, at Davidson (the Wildcats’ only home ‘L’), at Notre Dame and at N.C. State. UNC also has home victories over Michigan, Clemson, Duke, Boston College, Notre Dame and Bucknell, in addition to neutral-court wins over Arkansas and Ohio State.

-- Roy Williams’s squad has won four in a row both SU and ATS since going through a three-game slide both SU and ATS. The Tar Heels pulled away late to beat Notre Dame 83-66 as 10-point home favorites. The 149 combined points slipped ‘under’ the 151.5-point tally. Joel Berry II led the winners with 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field. Theo Pinson added 16 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, while Kenny Williams finished with 14 points, five boards, four assists and two steals.

-- UNC junior forward Luke Maye leads UNC in scoring (18.3 PPG), rebounding (10.4 RPG), FG percentage (51.7%) and blocked shots (1.3 BPG). Berry is averaging 17.5 PPG and making 89.6 percent of his FTAs.

-- UNC is 4-4 SU and 3-4-1 ATS in eight previous road assignments.

-- The ‘over’ is 15-11-1 overall for UNC, 6-3 in its past nine games, but the ‘under’ has connected at a 5-3 clip in its road contests.

-- The ‘over’ is 13-9-2 overall for U of L, but it has seen the ‘under’ go 7-6-2 in its home outings. The ‘over’ is on a 7-2-1 run in the Cardinals’ last 10 games.

-- The ‘under’ has cashed in four straight head-to-head meetings between these schools.

-- Tip-off is scheduled for 8:15 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.



**B.E.’s Bonus Nuggets**

-- The ‘under’ has cashed in three straight games and five of the last six for Arkansas. The Razorbacks host Texas A&M on Saturday. They’re 13-1 SU and 8-6 ATS at home inside of Bud Walton Arena, while the Aggies have limped to a 2-6 SU record and a 3-5 ATS mark in eight road assignments. Mike Anderson’s team has won three in a row both SU and ATS, while Billy Kennedy’s squad saw its four-game winning streak snapped earlier this week at Missouri. [...] opened the Hogs as 3.5-point home favorites.

-- Kentucky is hoping to avoid a five-game losing streak when it hosts Alabama at Rupp Arena. The Wildcats have failed to cover the number in five consecutive contests. The Crimson Tide hasn’t tasted victory in Lexington since Jermareo Davidson dropped 28 points and eight rebounds on the ‘Cats in a 68-64 back on Jan. 14 of 2006. UK is 13-2 SU but just 5-10 ATS at home, while ‘Bama is 2-5 SU and 4-3 ATS on the road. This game tips Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on CBS. UK was made a 3.5-point favorite on the send-out number from [...], but the line quickly move to 4.5.

-- This space has spoken to the class and credibility of Mark Fox often during his nine-year tenure at Georgia. With that said, everyone knows he’s got to get his team to the NCAA Tournament to see a 10th season in Athens. With UGA at 14-11 overall and 5-8 in the SEC, it’s mandatory for the Bulldogs to win Saturday vs. Tennessee at Stegeman Coliseum. If you like rooting for good people, you’ll want UGA to beat UT when they tip at 6:00 p.m. Eastern on the SEC Network. [...] opened UT as a 2.5-point ‘chalk.’

-- The ‘under’ is on a 10-4 run for UGA, but two of the ‘overs’ only emerged due to games that went into overtime(s) (double OT vs. Arkansas and OT at UF).

Follow Brian Edwards' sports gambling opinions on Twitter at @vegasbedwards.

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