00:00Choose a quarterly tonight in college basketball at 11 o'clock start.
00:03It's going to be Utah State versus New Mexico.
00:05Overnight line was around minus two and a half.
00:07That line now sits at minus one and a half as a favorite toward New Mexico here.
00:11Playing at the pit, the people out there know how far this game has changed.
00:14The pit actually held a Final Four and a championship game in just a normal arena.
00:19What? That doesn't make any sense, Joe.
00:20But what is your spread line tonight between Utah State and New Mexico?
00:24Huge Mountain West battle here.
00:26I mean, nobody saw New Mexico being as competitive as they are here this year.
00:30But Utah State handled business over the weekend against San Diego State.
00:35And this is just another test here.
00:39And New Mexico, I mean, listen, we're talking about maybe a third team here from the Mountain West.
00:46And they do it with defense here.
00:48So don't be shocked.
00:50Quietly, the Mountain West has become quite a decent conference here, Donnie,
00:55with Utah State.
00:56We saw Boise State and Nevada go at it last night.
01:00This would go a huge way for New Mexico to lock up their postseason and get that at-large
01:07berth there in March Madness.
01:10Buckle up in the SEC tonight.
01:12Why?
01:12Texas A&M is going to take on Alabama.
01:15This line opened up overnight, Joe.
01:16Roughly six and a half.
01:17Now we're seeing some live movement towards Alabama.
01:19Seven and a half and even eight and a half in the marketplace right now.
01:22But the total is where you need to look.
01:25Look at that.
01:26One seventy nine and a half.
01:28Why?
01:28In SEC play, Alabama is the fastest team.
01:31In SEC play, Texas A&M is the third fastest team.
01:34And away we go.
01:35Up and down the court, Joe.
01:37Close to a 180 total.
01:39What's your spread line tonight for A&M and Bama?
01:41Listen, Bucky Ball with Texas A&M.
01:44Nobody saw this team doing what they have been doing.
01:48And they are just rolling right through the SEC here, Donnie.
01:52And they're doing it rather easily.
01:54They're doing it by making great shots.
01:57They're also doing it by playing a little bit of defense here and rebounding.
02:03They don't beat themselves all that often.
02:05But Alabama coming off of that smackdown by Florida.
02:09And you said it, man.
02:10This total has been doing nothing but rising.
02:13The Alabama money is coming in.
02:15And Alabama at home has been better than Alabama on the road.
02:19The market keeps waiting for the wheels to fall off of Texas A&M.
02:23But I don't trust Alabama.
02:25Even at home, I don't know that this is the moment that Texas A&M is all of a sudden going to fall off the wayside.
02:33I might be looking at taking the points here tonight.
02:37UCF going to take on Houston in Houston tonight.
02:40You take a look at this spread line here, Joe.
02:42Open up around 13 and a half overnight.
02:43Now we're seeing as high as 15 and a halves in the marketplace as the favorite towards Houston.
02:48You know you're a good basketball team.
02:50Number one in offensive efficiency in conference play.
02:53Number two in defensive efficiency in conference play.
02:55And also my favorite statistic, the best team in conference play at turning you over.
02:59And also the best team in conference play at not turning the basketball over yourself.
03:04That's Houston favored by two touchdowns.
03:06Plus tonight going up against UCF.
03:08What are we thinking on the spread line here?
03:10Well, yeah, I mean, we saw four teams last night.
03:14Now we're seeing 15, 15 and a half, Donnie.
03:16And now, of course, we also saw the total at 150 and a half last night.
03:21No shocker that that's coming down.
03:23But listen, this UCF team, you know, I'm rooting for them to make the tournament because it's a fun style of basketball.
03:30The problem is, well, on the road against top 50 defenses, they have not done well, Donnie.
03:38They turn the ball over 25% of the time.
03:40They're only a 47% two-point shooting team on the road.
03:45When they play elite defenses on the road, it doesn't end up well.
03:50And something tells me this one is not going to end up well for UCF.
03:56But, hey, they surprised the world last week at home against Texas Tech, right?
04:01Houston, though, something tells me they're going to try to put this game away early like they usually do.
04:06Maybe cut this game in half and look at Houston early in this one, Donnie.
04:11Yeah, we know Houston loves to get after it on defense, turn you over, be aggressive, and they do foul.
04:14The only problem is UCF 10th in conference play, getting to the free throw line.
04:18Can they take advantage of that aggressiveness here for Houston?
04:20We'll find out tonight.
04:22Notre Dame and Louisville coming up tonight here.
04:25Joe Louisville, a monster favorite over Notre Dame, minus 17.5 at some outlets here.
04:29And a total of around 154.5 from the Yum Center tonight.
04:34Is it a walkaway easy victory over the Fighting Irish here tonight?
04:38Well, it better be.
04:39I mean, the Fighting Irish are just going through it here.
04:42I mean, they lost their best player earlier this year.
04:46So they've kind of been a shell of what they could have been here.
04:50But yeah, no, I think this is, come on, Louisville, you know, put it back together, get it done.
04:56They welcomed back their best player a couple of weeks ago.
05:00It hasn't exact, didn't work out great in that last game.
05:04But I do think that this should be a pretty easy win here for Louisville tonight.
05:09Should be a fun matchup for Louisville's offense also, as we know, they love to shoot the three-point shot.
05:1453% of their conference games, or excuse me, 53% in conference games, that's how much they shoot the three-point shot.
05:21More than actually inside the arc.
05:23And a fun fact for the Notre Dame defense.
05:24They'll defend the three-point shot a little bit, Joe, but they're 17th out of 18 teams in the ACC, excuse me, at letting you shoot the three-point shot.
05:32So a team that will let you shoot the three-point shot against a team that loves the three-point shot should be a pretty fun matchup tonight for scoring for Louisville on their side.
05:39How about the Men's March Madness Final Four qualifiers, if you want to bet them on the predictive markets right now?
05:44The favorite is Michigan, followed by Bryce James' Arizona Wildcats and the Duke Blue Devils, along with the Houston Cougars here, Joe.
05:53Looks like you got some pretty good price points out here at this spot here.
05:55But Michigan, Arizona, Duke, and Houston, the four favorites right now.
06:00As well, they should be here, Donnie.
06:03But, you know, there's a lot of teams in that that are going to be clustered right up underneath that.
06:08Oh, yeah, there are.
06:08That have very good shots of doing the same and, let's face it, much better pricing.
06:14Teams like Florida, teams like Kansas now, who seem to have figured it out in a big, big way.
06:20So, you know, don't sleep on some of these teams because, yeah, there's value on the board.
06:27You're always going to have the Dukes, the Michigans, right?
06:30Houston and Arizona are always going to be your four favorites heading into the final couple of weeks of the regular season.
06:36But don't sleep on that next group because that's where the value is.
06:40UConn, Illinois, Florida, Purdue, Texas Tech right behind them.
06:44By the way, Joe, we always talk about, like, if you want to bet on them or invest in them to actually make the final four.
06:49Take out a couple of no contracts.
06:50I don't care how good your team is.
06:51It's hard to get to the final four because it's not the best of three, the best of five, or the best of seven.
06:56You just need a team that gets upstarted quick.
06:58You get a bad draw because we don't know who they're actually playing in their brackets.
07:01You get a bad draw from Michigan, Arizona, Duke, or Houston, and you're going to be playing good basketball teams right up until you get to the final four and some of those no contracts and certainly pay off handsomely there.
07:11But to cut down the nets, Arizona listed as a favorite, Joe, plus 450, followed by Michigan, Duke, Florida, Illinois, and Houston here.
07:19We're getting close to March Madness.
07:20Yeah, we are.
07:22And, again, you know, still the fact that Houston at 12 and Florida, the two teams that played for the national championship last year, and both teams in a lot of aspects are just as stocked as they were a year ago.
07:35So it should be – feels like the gap between the top and that middle portion has kind of shrunk here a little bit.
07:44Anybody is beatable.
07:45We'll see whether or not Arizona loses a game, though, before it's all said and done.
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