South Carolina Gamecocks vs. Vanderbilt Commodores
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SEC East rivals heading in opposite directions meet at Memorial Gym on Saturday afternoon in a great NCAA basketball betting contest when the South Carolina Gamecocks (14-15, 9-17 ATS) face the Vanderbilt Commodores (23-6, 15-12 ATS). The Gamecocks were in the NCAA Tournament discussions until a few weeks ago, but now that they have lost six straight games both SU and ATS, they need at least two more wins just to be eligible for the NIT. Vanderbilt has rolled to wins in six of its L/8 games (with the losses coming on the road at Kentucky & Georgia), which is why the Commodores are thinking about a #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament coming up in two weeks.

South Carolina’s biggest problem has been a lack of scoring options. Sure, G Devan Downey is one of the best in the conference, if not the entire country. He is averaging 22.5 points per game this year. Of players that have played in enough games to qualify though, only one more, G Brandis Raley-Ross is scoring double digits per game. G Ramon Galloway is starting to get some extra playing time of late, and it is well deserved. He has come through with 35 combined points in his L/2 games.

Vanderbilt continues to flex its muscles in the powerful SEC, and it has bulled its way to the #2 seed in the East bracket, which will earn it what should amount to be a relatively easy draw to get to at least the semifinals of the SEC Tournament. Unlike for the Gamecocks, who have a hard time finding offense when Downey isn’t scoring, the ‘Dores have four double digit scorers in G Jermaine Beal (14.6 PPG), G Jeffrey Taylor (13.9 PPG), C AJ Ogilvy (13.9 PPG), and G John Jenkins (10.5 PPG).

In an 89-79 college basketball betting victory in Columbia earlier this year, all four of those players reached the double digit scoring plateau for the Commodores. It marked the seventh SU win for Vandy in its L/8 tries against the Gamecocks. The ‘Dores are 5-3 ATS in those eight games. South Carolina is only 3-12-1 ATS in its L/15 road games.

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