College Basketball Betting Free Picks: Louisville @ West Virginia
Added on Jan 30, 2010 by Jack Thurman in
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A ton of college basketball betting action at the sportsbooks for Saturday and we’ll take a look at a Big East game between the Louisville Cardinals and West Virgina Mountaineers. The biggest names in this matchup are the coaches, with Louisville’s Rick Pitino and WV’s Bob Huggins among the most famous in college hoops. Game will be televised nationally on ESPN.
Louisville at West Virginia
January 30, 9:00 AM Pacific
West Virginia is ranked #9 while Louisville is unranked but is there *that* much of a qualitative difference between these two teams? We sure don’t see it. Cardinals haven’t really ‘gelled’ defensively yet, and have lost 3 of 4 SU in the Big East. But its not like West Virginia has been dominating the conference either–they’re 5-2 while Louisville is 4-3 in conference. Neither team is anything to write home about against the spread. Louisville is 5-10 ATS while West Virginia is 7-11 ATS. Note that Louisville has been a monster on the road in the L3 years, with a 18-7 ATS mark and in Big East play where they’re 31-16 ATS in the L3 years.
From our vantage point, this looks like a very even game. Pitino has always had Huggins’ number, winning 8 of 12 lifetime matchups including three straight since Huggins took over at West Virginia. Mountaineers haven’t been shooting the ball well lately, going 8 straight games hitting less than 50% from the field. We look for Pitino’s 2-3 zone to keep West Virginia off balance and for Louisville to take the outright victory. At the very least, its a toss up game and we’ll gladly take the team getting seven points.
Bet Louisville +7 over West Virginia
