{"id":10739,"date":"2010-11-17T23:30:01","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T04:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=10739"},"modified":"2010-11-17T20:33:09","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T01:33:09","slug":"pittsburgh-panthers-vs-maryland-terrapins-ncaa-basketball-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/pittsburgh-panthers-vs-maryland-terrapins-ncaa-basketball-picks-10739\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Panthers vs Maryland Terrapins NCAA Basketball Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Panthers vs Maryland Terrapins
\nThursday, 11\/18\/10, 7:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -4.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -5.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Pitt Panthers have gone 24-11 at Madison Square Garden since the 2000-01 season<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pittsburgh has had little trouble with its first three opponents due to a large disparity on the boards, especially in a 95-49 win over North Florida on Saturday.\u00a0 The Panthers are grabbing 21.4 more rebounds than the opposition while winning by an average of 32.4 points.\u00a0 \u201cI think that it\u2019s something that we\u2019re continuing to build and grow on,\u201d said head coach Jamie Dixon.\u00a0 \u201cWe have good size at every position and depth at this point.\u201d\u00a0 Outrebounding opponents is nothing new for this program, as its had the sixth-best differential in the nation over the past two seasons.\u00a0 Tonight\u2019s contest will be played at Madison Square Garden, which has been Pitt\u2019s home away from home, playing 35 games at the venue since the 2000-01 season.\u00a0 Over that period of time, the team has compiled a 24-11 record.\u00a0 The team is 4-9 ATS on neutral courts over the past three years and currently favored on the NCAA basketball lines page.<\/p>\n

The Panthers have gained national recognition over the last decade due to being one of only three programs to win more than 20-plus games, 10-plus league games and advance to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last nine seasons (Gonzaga, Kansas, Pitt).\u00a0 Pitt may tally another victory tonight due to a great backcourt consisting of junior Ashton Gibbs and senior Brad Wanamaker each averaging 19.3 points per game.\u00a0 \u201cThey obviously had really good years last year and they\u2019re even better this year,\u201d said Dixon.\u00a0 \u201cI always felt Brad was overlooked and underrated.\u00a0 Overall, the team returned four starters and seven of its top eight scorers from the 2009-10 squad.<\/p>\n

Maryland also enters fresh off three wins to open the season and will be making its first trip to Madison Square Garden since they won the same 2K Sports Classic in 2006.\u00a0 The Terrapins will need a big game from Jordan Williams on the boards Thursday night, as he comes in averaging 13.7 rebounds per game in the early going, after grabbing 8.6 last year.\u00a0 \u201cI think he has more endurance this year,\u201d head coach Gary Williams stated.\u00a0 \u201cHe doesn\u2019t get as tired.\u00a0 He got tired quickly last year.\u201d\u00a0 He was voted the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Week on Monday, opening the season with three straight double-doubles.\u00a0 The squad is 15-10 ATS as an underdog the past three years.<\/p>\n

The Terrapins have 23 wins over Top 10 teams the last 10 years and much of that has to do with Williams on the sidelines.\u00a0 he is the nation\u2019s winningest active coach versus top-ranked teams with seven career victories over a No. 1 opponent.\u00a0 Maryland will need a monster game from its new backcourt this season to pull off an upset in this contest, with senior Adrian Bowie and junior Sean Mosley combining to average 17 points per game.\u00a0 Mosley is especially important, as he has four career games with 20-plus points, including 21 in the season opener against Seattle University.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in knowing that the Terrapins are 0-5 ATS versus the Big East Conference, while the Panthers are 3-9 ATS in their last 12 neutral site games.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss a single night of action and let the college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports supply you with winners night after night!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Panthers vs Maryland Terrapins Thursday, 11\/18\/10, 7:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2 Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -4.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Pittsburgh -5.5 Pittsburgh has had little trouble with its first three opponents due to a large disparity on the boards, especially in a 95-49 win over North Florida on Saturday.\u00a0 The Panthers are grabbing 21.4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[3903,3233,559,3904,3905,3734,3902,1358,615,3906],"class_list":["post-10739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-ashton-gibbs","tag-atlantic-coast-conference","tag-big-east","tag-brad-wanamaker","tag-gary-williams","tag-jamie-dixon","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-maryland-terrapins","tag-pittsburgh-panthers","tag-sean-mosley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10739"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10741,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10739\/revisions\/10741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}