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Folks, Zack has been sizzling in 2014. He is the #1 documented NFL handicapper at over 70% on the season. In college basketball he is off to a 14-2-1 start and in college football he is a smidge under 60% on the season. Be sure to take a look at all my daily, weekend, and in-season packages under today’s picks.

For Saturday’s college football free play I’ll focus on Notre Dame vs USC. The line on this game is seven points in favor of USC. As bad as Notre Dame has looked it was only a month ago that they were considered a possible playoff team. That was even with a narrow defeat to Florida State.

Mark this game a month ago and the spread would have been closer to 3.5. There have been no injuries of major concern to Notre Dame and USC is a team that no one quite really knows where to rank them.

I think this matchup is more even on paper than people and the oddsmakers think. Notre Dame and Brian Kelly will be able to score against USC and I think their defense will finally be up for the challenge.

This line should be more in the 3.5 to 4 range and will be decided in the fourth quarter. Take Notre Dame plus the touchdown and enjoy Saturday’s games. For premium plays I have a three game board for college football Saturday and a five game Sunday board in the NFL.

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The college basketball schedule is a whirlwind from here on until March Madness. That’s what has been the continual year after year synopsis of college basketball. Following Syracuse’s sixteenth win of the season their head coach Jim Boeheim aptly stated, “there is no dominant team in college basketball this season”. It’s a phrase stated often but holds true.

This week alone eight new teams cracked the top 25. All that a team can typically play within the seven day period of a new poll being released is two games. Is a one or two game win streak this early in conference play enough to push a team from garnering a top 25 position? Probably so. But it does not necessarily mean a new team replacing a top 25 team is better than the one exiting. That’s the beauty of college basketball.

Arizona and Syracuse are quality teams but are still vulnerable. For Syracuse they’re relying heavily on a freshman point guard that has had to be called upon twice to save the Orangemen from disastrous offensive shooting. Once against St. Francis NY and the other time against Miami last week. Arizona lacks fire power in the backcourt offensively. Nick Johnson is an athletic guard that teams will live with him shooting from the perimeter. While point guard McConnell is a set shooter that wants to setup teammates more than shoot. I foresee a loss coming Arizona’s way in the near future.

On to Monday’s top 25 matchups. Here is a quick breakdown with point spread selections.

Virginia vs Duke
I firmly believe in the adage what you see is what you get. How the Blue Devils are 6.5 point favorites blows my mind. They’ve been torched in conference play by the likes of Clemson and Notre Dame, and were not as impressive as the score indicated against Georgia Tech. Their offense has no rhyme or reason which is a deadly combination considering their poor team defense. Virginia on the other hand is a comfortable veteran team that doesn’t need twelve to fourteen games in conference play to identify themselves. Play Virginia plus the points.

Syracuse vs Boston College
The only thing hindering the Orangemen on a given night is their lack of offensive execution. When that occurs is the invariable aspect that makes their great run agains the spread a tough choice to keep rolling with tonight. This is the type of game that Syracuse wants to use their size advantage to control the game. They should be able to pound the ball inside to Rakeem Christmas for easy buckets, and use the off the dribble skillsets of forwards Jerami Grant and CJ Fair. A shooter that is off needs to realize that and that’s the unfortunate status of slumping shooter Trevor Cooney. The win over North Carolina in their new conference of the ACC surely had the Cuse pumped. They’ll need to be ready and level headed against a BC team that can shoot the ball. The play here is still the Cuse but I think itll take halfway through the second half before they get on a typical clamp down zone defense to offense run.

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