Rhode Island @ NC Charlotte o148.5 (-110)
Wed March 12 ’08 8:50p
The festivities on the boardwalk in Atlantic City will come to a conclusion this evening when the (21-10) Rhode island Rams take on the (18-12) Charlotte 49’ers. Rhode island fell flat on its face over the last month of their regular season schedule, and have been tagged the 11 seed because of their efforts, while Charlotte finished up strong to secure the #6 seed. These clubs just met in each teams season finale, and it was the 49’ers that proved to be victorious by going into Rhode Island and securing a 74-64 SU road win and cover as 6-point underdogs.

Rhode Island got off to a tremendous start to their 2007-08 campaign. They won 14 of their first 15 overall and made their backers very happy by going 9-3-1 ATS over that stretch. However, they went 7-9 SU over their next 16 and sent their backers to the poor house after only managing covers in 4 of those 16 contests. The Rams only went 5-6 SU on the road, but they went a perfect 4-0 SU in their neutral court games. In their 15 games away from home, the Rams attained a 6-8-1 mark ATS.

Charlotte closed out their regular season schedule very strong by picking up SU wins and covers in 4 of their L/5. They’ve gotten hot at the right time and need to make a deep run within this tourney to have any shot of punching their “Big Dance” tickets. All in all, the 49’ers went 5-9 SU in their road/neutral venue games , but churned out a respectable 6-7-1 mark ATS. Their win at Rhode Island last week snapped a three game road losing streak, so they should head into this game very confident knowing they just took care of these guys in their own house.

Surprisingly, Rhode Island has been installed the favorite in this contest by 1-point and the ‘total’ has been set at 148. Charlotte holds a 5-1 SU advantage in the all time series against Rhode island that dates back to 1999, but each club has earned three spread victories. The Rams are a woeful 1-7 ATS their L/8 overall games, and an also pathetic 1-6 ATS their L/7 when installed a favorite. Charlotte is 6-1-1 ATS their L/8 as an underdog, but have failed to excel in that role in neutral court games going 2-11-1 ATS their L/14. With each club’s shoddy performance in this scenario, look to the ‘total’ that’s seen the Over go a combined 13-0 in neutral court games where RI was installed as the favorite and a perfect 5-0 ATS in the 49’ers L/5 games as an underdog.

Don’t miss out on this year’s NCAA Tournament picks from the professional handicappers at Touthouse.com, Handicapperspicks.com and Accuwager.com

Wyoming -6.5
Wed Mar 12 ’08 2:00p
I don’t lay points very often in conference tournaments, but there are times where the chalk is the clear choice to make. Usually, these are the type of games where the underdog has but one game left in their season – this game. Colorado State is that kind of an underdog. It’s hard for a 6-24 team that went winless in Mountain West play to get excited about their chances. It’s even harder when they have to travel for an early start game here in Vegas, a game that probably won’t have more than a smattering of fans in the Thomas and Mack Arena for the 11 AM local time tip-off.

When we throw in the injury situation for this very bad team it gets even worse for their psyche and their chances of making a stand. Colorado State has a pair of seven footers in Stuart Creason and Ronnie Aguilar, a duo that combines for 16 points and 12 rebounds per game. Neither is expected to play here, suffering from ankle and foot injuries respectively. Wyoming won both regular season meetings by double digit margins. They covered the spread in their Mountain West Conference tournament opener last year by a double digit margin as well. Expect a similar result this time around. (#756) Take Wyoming.