Root
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Inner Circle
Cal Irvine (-1) over Hawaii
Revenge is so sweet in college basketball. Hawaii defeated Cal Irvine in their first meeting on Feb. 15 on the road, 62-61. Now it’s payback for that anomaly contested ballgame. Hawaii has chalked up some really bad losses including: Cal Fullerton, Santa Barbara, Cal Poly, Northridge and even Cal Riverside. Cal Irvine in their last two games crushed Cal Poly by 17 and then on Thursday smashed Cal Santa Barbara by 20; two teams that Hawaii lost. The final score will be a very solid Cal Irvine 69-64 win with revenge extracted. Cal Irvine for the season is holding teams over-all shooting to Under 39%. That’s great in your face hustle to do that for the year. Teams also have tremendous difficulties from the three point shots. Defense wins these games especially when the opposition is not a scoring team.
Millionaires
Fresno State (-9½) over Wyoming
Saturday @ 10:00 PM (EST) -- Save Mart Center
No Limit
Kansas State (+4) over Oklahoma
Saturday @ 6:00 PM (EST) -- Lloyd Noble Center
Perfect Play
Tennessee (-4) over Ole Miss
Saturday @ 1:00 PM (EST) -- The Pavilion at Ole Miss
Pinnacle
Drake (-5) over Valparaiso
Saturday @ 3:00 PM (EST) -- Knapp Center
——- Pinnacle—-Drake To be a senior playing in Iowa on Seniors Night has to be special. This is going to be an emotional Senior Night for one of the most experienced teams in the entire country. The Drake Bulldogs are getting hot at the right time. Drake comes in having won four of their last six conference games and the team will bid farewell to one of the program’s most storied players in Reed Timmer. According to Ken Pom, Drake ranks 7th in the country in overall experience and the team has four seniors in the starting lineup. Their experience has them second in committing the fewest turnovers. Coach Niko Medved’s squad does a good job of moving the ball on offense to generate easy baskets. The Bulldogs have assisted on 59% of their total field goal attempts during conference play (1st in the MVC), while sporting an effective field goal percentage of 51% which will win many game for a team. Drake is a pointspread covering machine at 16-9 and any adjustments by the oddsmakers won’t come into play until next week’s conference tournament.