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Watch as Zack, Shaun, and John give their ATS opinions on a big ten matchup between Wisconsin and Iowa.

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Today one of the best games on the college basketball board comes from the Atlantic 10. Last year VCU and George Washington played a couple of intriguing matchups. This year should be no different as both teams have looked the part of a 1A and 1B top A-10 team along with Dayton.

VCU is coming off a neck and neck nationally televised win as 13 point favorites over Saint Louis. Saint Louis did a great job in dribbling against VCU’s press and limiting VCU’s inside the paint offense.

George Washington on the other hand has faced the easier portion of the A-10 schedule lately. They handled Fordham, Duquense, and George Mason. One has to wonder if they can come out with the proper aggression on the road against VCU after facing easy opponents.

Last year the teams split both matchups in the regular season before VCU defeated GW by 19 points in the A-10 conference tournament. Key contributors last year for George Washington are gone in Maurice Creek and big man Isiah Armwood. Armwood helped immensely by attacking VCU in the paint and with offensive rebound putbacks.

Pace should be frenetic in this one like the matchups last year. Besides George Washington going cold in the second half in the A-10 tournament the other two matchups featured a 76-66 final and a 92-75 final. Both teams went to the free throw line at a high rate as well.

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Sunday in the ACC the Louisville Cardinal will travel to Pittsburgh for their first matchup in the ACC conference. The two teams were opponents for the duration of their time in the Big East conference. Las Vegas handicappers, Jeff Saad, John Cranton, and Zack Cimini give their opinions from an ATS perspective.

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All the talk from handicappers is usually on games they would play. From time to time I will take a different angle and discuss a game that has no business being on anyone’s betting ticket. The last profiled game was Georgia Tech vs Syracuse which featured numerous lead changes and a narrow one point win from the Cuse.

Saturday I’ll head out to the Big West where a late night matchup features Cal Santa Barbara vs Long Beach State. As of this blog entry Long Beach State is favored by 3.5 points. Cal Santa Barbara is coming off a dud performance in which they lost outright as a 13 point favorite at home to Cal State Northridge. That line was severely off and not an indicator of the type of team Santa Barbara is.

Meanwhile Long Beach State is a puzzle that I could not back right now. They seem to have the pieces to be the Big West representative but have looked like a team non-focused for most of this season. They took their beatings in non-conference games against top-tier talent but have came out flat in conference play.

Long Beach State lost to UC Davis in overtime and nearly had to face Cal Poly in overtime because of costly errors by senior guard Mike Caffey. For the majority of the game against Cal Poly they failed as a team to match the defensive intensity that Cal Poly brought to the court.

The talent is there for Long Beach State but I have yet to see this team display their capabilities. This is a tricky game to see if Long Beach State finally emerges or if Cal Santa Barbara gives them another close Big West matchup.

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Zack is 68-26-3 ATS this season in college basketball and has a big board of eight plays for Saturday. If you see this video past the morning/mid morning slate and still want to get on board send an email to notjustagame23@gmail.com. An afternoon package with five plays is also offered for $55. All games are after 1PM PST.

NCAA Basketball ATS Free Play: DePaul vs Villanova from Zack Cimini on Vimeo.

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On the season in college basketball Zack is 66-25-3 ATS. Today he is just on one play, and it involves a late-night capper. Get it under today’s picks for just $29.

Today I perceived both the NBA and NCAA basketball board as a cautionary board. It’s my personal opinion and other cappers may believe it to be an enticing board. There is one game I would caution all against and that is my —-Stay Away Game Of The Day between Syracuse and Georgia Tech—.

Both of these teams have flirted with both disaster and greatness this season. Syracuse has bounced back nicely in the wins category but still flirted with letting big leads evaporate into losses. They almost blew an early season matchup against Iowa in the final minutes, Louisiana Tech recently, and allowed Virginia Tech to erase a 19 point halftime lead in their latest game. In between all of that was a blown win at Villanova that could cost Syracuse down the road if they end up on the bubble.

Georgia Tech is a new style team that has young talent intermixed with Maryland transfer Charles Mitchell in the low blocks. They’re play has been erratic and inconsistent but the capability of defeating a top 25 team is there on any given night.

The point spread in favor of Syracuse by four is clearly an high indicator that the linesmakers do not believe Georgia Tech can attack Syracuse’s zone effectively. I’m not sure they can either with limited experience in the backcourt and an edge in the post with Rakeem Christmas of Syracuse. Christmas though has been known to get in foul trouble early. Syracuse sharp shooter Trevor Cooney has also been known to go through his hot/cold stretches. Currently he has been on a hot stretch which has aided Syracuse’s offense immensely. But is that poor shooting night smack dab in front of us?

There are too many red-flags for me to lay the points with Syracuse on the road against Georgia Tech, and I can’t trust Georgia Tech’s on-court chemistry to befuddle the Syracuse zone.

This could be one of those games where the lead changes five to ten times. Keep this one off your board as the stay away game of the day.