College Basketball Betting Picks: Syracuse @ Providence
Added on Feb 23, 2010 by Jack Thurman in
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Good sized card of college basketball betting action on online betting boards for Tuesday, and we’ll look to a Big East Conference tilt between Syracuse and Providence. Syracuse is leading the Big East while Providence is near the bottom of the conference tables:
Syracuse at Providence
February 23, 4:00 PM Pacific
If you’ve followed our handicapping writeups for awhile now you’ll know that much of what we do is based on how linemakers react to certain situations. That’s an important component of sports handicapping that many casual players miss: you’re sometimes better off handicapping the bookmaker’s view of a game rather than handicapping the game itself.
That appears to be the case here. For the casual sports bettor the kneejerk reaction is to take Syracuse over Providence and many won’t even worry about the pointspread involved. Looking on my live odds feed, at the moment nearly 70% of the money on this game is backing Syracuse. Yet we’ve learned by now that sports betting rewards the contrarian, and that going against the public is profitable more often than not.
A few things to consider. This is the most that Syracuse has been favored on the road so far this season. Their performance ATS away from home has been very good, but that’s all the more reason for the linesmaker to start shading his numbers against the Orange on the road. Providence has been a dismal home team (2-9 ATS) but–you guessed it–that’s a reason for the linesmaker to shade his numbers *toward* the Friars at home.
In addition to these two trends, you’ve got a favorable situational matchup for Providence. Syracuse’s next game is arguably their biggest of the year–a home game against Villanova. It’ll be hard for them to focus on a Providence team that they know they’re superior to. And year in, year out taking points in competitive college hoops conferences is the way to go. Syracuse wins ugly, but Providence makes a game of it.
Bet Providence +8′ over Syracuse
