{"id":11535,"date":"2010-12-15T10:58:27","date_gmt":"2010-12-15T15:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11535"},"modified":"2010-12-15T10:58:44","modified_gmt":"2010-12-15T15:58:44","slug":"free-expert-picks-akron-zips-at-minnesota-golden-gophers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/free-expert-picks-akron-zips-at-minnesota-golden-gophers-11535\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Expert Picks: Akron Zips at Minnesota Golden Gophers NCAA Basketball Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Akron Zips at Minnesota Golden Gophers
\nWednesday, 12\/15\/10, 8:30 PM EDT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Minnesota -15
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Minnesota -14.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 139
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 139.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Minnesota Golden Gophers are double-digit home favorites against the Akron Zips tonight in Williams Arena<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Akron suffered a humiliating 82-47 loss to Temple on December 12 in Philadelphia that snapped a two-game road winning streak.\u00a0 The Zips have averaged just 50.5 points while shooting 33.6 percent from the field the past two games.\u00a0 Entering this month of play, the team knew it would be extremely challenging in playing seven of its nine games on the road.\u00a0 The seven road contests in one month is tied for the most in the school\u2019s Division I era that started in 1980-81.\u00a0 Earning a 3-1 record on this road trip will be extremely difficult in facing a squad that is 5-1 at Williams Arena this season.\u00a0 Akron is 18-11 ATS on the road the past three years and is currently a double-digit underdog on the college basketball lines page.<\/p>\n

The Zips welcomed back just two starters from last year\u2019s 24-win team.\u00a0 Akron hasn\u2019t shuffled the lineup much in the early going, starting four players throughout the first seven games.\u00a0 The team is still trying to find a breakout scorer and rebounder, which may be forward Nikola Cvetinovic down the road.\u00a0 \u201cI am an upperclassmen now,\u201d he commented.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s my junior year.\u00a0 I have to be physically and mentally ready to play.\u201d\u00a0 He leads the team in scoring 13.4 points per game and is second on the squad in rebounding.\u00a0 Akron is 4-18 all-time against the Big 10 Conference and will need to continue taking care of the ball in possibly pulling off the upset tonight.\u00a0 The Zips lead the Mid-American Conference in assists and are second in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.24).<\/p>\n

Minnesota is set to play its final contest before final exams and will not be on the court again until December 23.\u00a0 The Gophers have met tonight\u2019s opponent only once, defeating the Zips 86-59 during the 1991-92 season at Williams Arena.\u00a0 A huge part of the team\u2019s game early in the season has been blocked shots and steals, two categories that it currently leads the conference in.\u00a0 They have swatted 57 shots for an average of 5.70 blocks per game, while swiping 88 balls for an average of 8.80 steals per contest.\u00a0 In fact, Minnesota has led the Big Ten in both categories the last two seasons.\u00a0 Since the start of the 1997 season, the squad is 5-1 ATS versus MAC competition.<\/p>\n

The Gophers will be missing Al Nolen for a fifth consecutive game tonight and will anticipate having one of their best defensive players back in the lineup against South Dakota State.\u00a0 Minnesota had given up an average of 75.3 points per game in the first three games without him before holding Eastern Kentucky to 58 points in a Saturday victory.\u00a0 \u201cCoach was just emphasizing shutting them down,\u201d said Blake Hoffarber.\u00a0 \u201cOffense wasn\u2019t really clicking, so we\u2019ve got to win the game playing defense.\u201d\u00a0 Under Tubby Smith, the program is allowing just 59.2 points per game at tonight\u2019s venue in 59 games.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in knowing that the Zips are 34-14-5 ATS after a SU loss, while the Gophers are 11-5 ATS in non-conference games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Akron Zips at Minnesota Golden Gophers Wednesday, 12\/15\/10, 8:30 PM EDT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Minnesota -15 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Minnesota -14.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 139 Current Total:\u00a0 139.5 Akron suffered a humiliating 82-47 loss to Temple on December 12 in Philadelphia that snapped a two-game road winning streak.\u00a0 The Zips have averaged just 50.5 points while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[3894,1901,4140,2559,464,4139,1384,3998],"class_list":["post-11535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-akron-zips","tag-big-10","tag-blake-hoffarber","tag-mid-american-conference","tag-minnesota-golden-gophers","tag-nikola-cvetinovic","tag-tubby-smith","tag-williams-arena"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11535","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=11535"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11537,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11535\/revisions\/11537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}