Free College Basketball Picks: January 19th 2008 - Bet on College Basketball
Free Sports Picks, NCAA Basketball Picks January 19th, 2008Are you going to bet on college basketball today? Hire a Touthouse.com Professional Basketball Handicapper for all of your College Basketball Picks and Guarantee a Win!!
Oklahoma -7.0
Sat Jan 19 ‘08 4:00p
The Oklahoma Sooners (12-5) are a much improved team and despite of some recent set backs to Kansas and Kansas State, are on their way to being one of the top programs in the Big 10 again. Bobby Knights Texas Tech(10-6), their opponents here today are off an emotional win against Texas A&M last time out, for their 3rd straight win in that series, and are now in a let down situation, against an extremely hungry Sooners team that will be primed to get back in the win column. Final notes & Key Trends: Texas Tech has lost 4 of their 5 road games this season.The Sooners have won 51 of the last 59 games and 106 of the last 119 at home in the Loyd Noble Center. Play on Oklahoma yes, even with freshman star Griffin out of the lineup with injury
Illinois +3.5 (-110)
Sat Jan 19 ‘08 2:00p
The Illinois Fighting Illini may be just 9-9 overall and 1-4 in conference, compared to 12-5 and 3-1 for the Purdue Boilermakers, but these teams are actually equally hot from an ATS standpoint. The Illini have covered three straight games despite going just 1-2 straight up in those games, with two of the covers coming impressively on the road at Wisconsin and Indiana before a home blowout win over lowly Michigan. No, Illinois is not as good as in past seasons, but they are getting better with every game and after playing the Hoosiers and Badgers tough, we give them a good chance of winning this game outright. Now Purdue has also covered three straight, but while Illinois covered against possibly the two best teams in the Big Ten, the Boilermakers’ covers came vs. conference doormat Iowa, overrated Ohio State and a Michigan State team that has forgotten how to score lately. Besides, even with this three-game ATS winning streak, Purdue is still just 6-8 ATS for the season. We actually rate this game a toss up, which automatically gives value to Illinois as a dog. CBB Free Pick: Illinois +3.5
Boston College +5.5 (-110)
Sat Jan 19 ‘08 8:00p
The Boston College Eagles are a live underdog when they visit the Virginia Cavaliers tonight. Boston College is off to a nice 12-4 start, and they are already 3-0 inside the ACC. They have won five of their seven games overall, and in their last two contests, they destroyed a decent Wake Forest squad 112-73, and they then beat a Miami team that had been undefeated ATS by a solid 76-66 count. Now granted, the Eagles have played just two true road games, but they were both victories including a nice conference road win at Maryland. Now Virginia is 10-5, but the are heading in the wrong direction. The Cavaliers have lost three straight games including two in conference, and they did not exactly play a strong non-conference schedule outside of Xavier (a game they lost by 22 points), so they may not be toughened enough just yet for the nightly ACC wars. The home team has won both meetings between these schools since Boston College joined the conference, but the Eagles have a good chance to snap that streak here. CBB Free Pick: Boston College +5.5
Drake -5.0
Sat Jan 19 ‘08 8:00p
We can expect to continue getting extremely attractive prices to support Drake as long as Missouri Valley Conference leading scorer Josh Young remains out (listed as questionable today) with a severely sprained right ankle. First year head coach Keno Davis has taken over for his father Tom, much the way Tony Bennett took over for his dad at Washington State and immediately engineered a 15 win improvement over what his father had been able to accomplish in the previous season. The transformation here at Drake has been eerily similar, with the building blocks put in place by the dad reaping tremendous dividends for the son.
And there’s still plenty of value left with a team that was projected as a bottom feeder in the Missouri Valley Conference, but has gotten off to a 15-1 SU, 10-2 ATS start to the campaign. Drake is outscoring foes by more than 20 points per game at home, enjoying tremendous crowd support in a conference loaded with strong home court edges. And there’s plenty of depth on this squad, allowing us to continue supporting them despite Young’s injury. Leonard Houston and Jonathan Cox are both hitting better than 45% for the season from long range, and forward Klayton Korver is a deadeye dick from downtown as well. Combine that with a 75% free throw shooting percentage at home and a defense that is forcing turnovers galore while holding opponents to 40% shooting from the field, and you can understand why the fundamentals are in place for Drake to continue their stellar early season run. (#634) Take Drake.