Dave Cokin
Bonus Play Monday
My Monday Bonus Play is in college basketball, and I’ll be looking for a big bounce effort in the right direction with this one.
531 CLEVELAND STATE at 532 OAKLAND 7:00 PM
Take: OAKLAND -14.5
I happened to watch a good portion of Saturday’s game between Horizon rivals Detroit and Oakland. I had no particular interest in this game, but it caught my eye and I decided to stay with it on one of my TV’s. I’m glad I did, as it turned out to be a thriller that ended up with the lowly Titans pulling off a huge upset.
That Detroit win was cause for celebration as far as their players were concerned. Turns out they were treating this as what amounts to their game of the year, as this team isn’t going to any tournaments and Oakland is a definite rival.
The Titans obviously played they best game of the season, and I think it’s fair to offer that the Grizzlies didn’t take them seriously. Oakland was never really sharp in this game, but even so, they were up a dozen late in the first half and I’m sure they felt they had things well in hand.
The stat line tells the story, as Detroit got an insane performance from Jaleel Hogan and Oakland committed an unreal 25 turnovers. The Grizzlies had just 41 turnovers in their first four conference games and ended up with that absurd total against a team they simply had no business losing to.
Fast forward to this evening. I can’t fathom the notion that Oakland plays anywhere close to as sloppily as they did against Detroit. That’s bad news for a weak Cleveland State entry that has looked horrible in losing five of six league games. The Vikings are a really bad offensive team. They’re prone to giveaways, their outside shooting is pathetic and I suspect they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time tonight.
If Oakland takes the court steaming from the Detroit debacle, this game has an excellent chance to turn into a romp. I’ll play it that way by giving the points with the heavy home favorite.
