{"id":20704,"date":"2011-12-30T23:58:44","date_gmt":"2011-12-31T04:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20704"},"modified":"2011-12-30T23:58:44","modified_gmt":"2011-12-31T04:58:44","slug":"college-basketball-picks-louisville-cardinals-vs-kentucky-wildcats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/college-basketball-picks-louisville-cardinals-vs-kentucky-wildcats-20704\/","title":{"rendered":"College Basketball Picks: Louisville Cardinals vs. Kentucky Wildcats"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 4 Louisville Cardinals at No. 3 Kentucky Wildcats
\nSaturday, 12\/31\/11, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Kentucky -10.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Kentucky -9.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 135
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 135
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Kentucky Wildcats are nearly double-digit favorites against the Louisville Cardinals Saturday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Louisville plays its final non-conference game in traveling to Lexington, Ky and playing inside Rupp Arena.\u00a0 The Cardinals are coming off a 71-68 defeat to the Georgetown Hoyas as 6.5-point home favorites.\u00a0 \u201cI think Kentucky is the better basketball team right now,\u201d commented Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino.\u00a0 \u201cRunning up and down and trying to outscore Kentucky would be a futile attempt to try and get a W.\u201d\u00a0 The program has produced a 12-1 record after 13 games for the third time under Pitino\u2019s direction.\u00a0 Louisville is 8-6 ATS as an underdog the last two-plus years.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals are 14-28 all-time in this series, splitting the last four meetings, but dropped a 78-63 contest as three-point home favorites on Dec. 31, 2010.\u00a0 Louisville is seeking its first victory in this series since Jan. 4, 2009.\u00a0 The first half figures to be very important in this matchup, as the Cardinals have scored 40 or more points in the first 20 minutes in four of their last eight games.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very balanced attack with this squad, as six players are averaging at least 8.7 points per game.<\/p>\n

Kentucky has six players averaging double-figures and is led by Doron Lamb\u2019s 15.8-point average.\u00a0 The Wildcats will also put their 43-game home winning streak on the line inside Saturday\u2019s venue, as current head coach John Calipari has never lost in front of the home faithful in Lexington.\u00a0 \u201cWe don\u2019t send Christmas cards, but we\u2019re cordial to each other,\u201d commented Calipari about his relationship with Pitino.\u00a0 Kentucky ranks third in the country in outscoring opponents by 23.5 points per game on average.\u00a0 Over the last two-plus seasons, the team is 1-3 ATS as a home favorite of 9.5 to 12 points.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats are 9-0 at home this season and own the nation\u2019s longest home-winning streak.\u00a0 Kentucky has tremendous talent on the roster and four true freshman are among the team\u2019s top seven scorers.\u00a0 Center Anthony Davis is also someone to watch in the paint, averaging a double-double and leads the team in grabbing 10.2 rebounds per game.\u00a0 Kentucky is 161-68 all-time against teams from the Bluegrass State.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Wildcats due to their 16-7-1 ATS mark versus Big East opponents, while the Cardinals are 1-5 ATS versus SEC foes.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No. 4 Louisville Cardinals at No. 3 Kentucky Wildcats Saturday, 12\/31\/11, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Kentucky -10.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Kentucky -9.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 135 Current Total:\u00a0 135 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Louisville plays its final non-conference game in traveling to Lexington, Ky and playing inside Rupp Arena.\u00a0 The Cardinals are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[5659,559,5661,876,556,4116,739],"class_list":["post-20704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-anthony-davis","tag-big-east","tag-doron-lamb","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-rupp-arena","tag-sec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20704","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=20704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20705,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20704\/revisions\/20705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}