Providence Friars at West Virginia Mountaineers, WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, WV
Thursday, January 13, 2011, 7:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN2
Opening Line: West Virginia -10
Current Line: West Virginia -9.5
Opening Total: 152
Current Total: 152.5
Money Line: West Virginia -500 / Providence +400
The West Virginia Mountaineers (10-4, 2-2 Big East) will look to keep the Providence Friars (11-6, 0-4) winless in conference play when they square off on Thursday. West Virginia (-9.5) returns home after consecutive league road wins at DePaul and Georgetown hoping to cool off Providence senior Marshon Brooks and hand his team a fifth straight defeat.
The Friars have struggled mightily to start Big East play despite Brooks, who is averaging a team-high 23.8 points and eight rebounds per game. He has scored 20 points or more in the last 11 games yet Providence is just 6-5 straight-up during that stretch. Poor defense can be blamed for the rough start in the conference, as the team is surrendering 79 points per game.
The Mountaineers have never really been known as an offensive team under head coach Bob Huggins but could obviously have success against that porous defense. They are averaging 69 points in four league games and even less (66) in their two Big East wins. West Virginia’s defense has a lot to do with that success in those wins with opponents scoring just 62 points per game. In fact, the team has won 34 in a row when limiting opponents to 69 points or less.
The road win over the Hoyas is not as impressive for the Mountaineers after Pitt blew them out 72-57 at the Verizon Center on Wednesday night. However, West Virginia will take a conference victory any way possible and should not be looking ahead to Sunday’s nationally televised game against #8 Purdue. The team holds a 15-11 edge all-time against the Friars, who have dropped nine of the last 10 in the series and have only won once at the Coliseum.
Providence is also 1-7-1 against the spread in the last nine meetings with the Mountaineers with the UNDER cashing in three of the past four games between the teams. But just two games for the Friars have gone UNDER since their second game of the season, a 58-55 win over Yale.
West Virginia’s last two games have both gone UNDER the total after seeing only one other UNDER cash this season. The Mountaineers are limiting the opposition to just 63.3 points per game at home on 39.1 percent shooting, including 25.9 percent from 3-point range. Providence has given up nearly 85 points per game on the road, allowing opponents to shoot nearly 52 percent from the field, including 44.4 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.
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