{"id":20944,"date":"2012-01-09T11:21:21","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T16:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20944"},"modified":"2012-01-09T11:21:21","modified_gmt":"2012-01-09T16:21:21","slug":"college-basketball-picks-west-virginia-mountaineers-vs-connecticut-huskies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/college-basketball-picks-west-virginia-mountaineers-vs-connecticut-huskies-20944\/","title":{"rendered":"College Basketball Picks: West Virginia Mountaineers vs. Connecticut Huskies"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Virginia Mountaineers at No. 8 Connecticut Huskies
\nMonday, 1\/9\/12, 7:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Connecticut -5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Connecticut -5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 137.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 139
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Connecticut Huskies have never lost at home to the West Virginia Mountaineers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

West Virginia has started Big East Conference play with a 3-1 record, including a 74-62 victory over the Georgetown Hoyas as two-point home favorites.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve been up and down sometimes and we\u2019ve got to get more consistent, but when we play like this, I think we\u2019re tough to beat,\u201d stated Mountaineers forward Kevin Jones.\u00a0 Head coach Bob Huggins has wins over 20 ranked teams since he has been the head coach at West Virginia.\u00a0 The team is 1-3 ATS as a road underdog of 3.5 to 6 points the last two-plus years.<\/p>\n

The Mountaineers are 0-8 against the Huskies in games played at Connecticut, while tallying a 4-13 mark in this series as conference rivals.\u00a0 West Virginia has been led offensively by the play of Truck Bryant, who has averaged 18.4 points for the conference\u2019s third-best mark, which includes 24.8 points a contest during Big East play.\u00a0 It\u2019s still important to note that he\u2019s managed to score just 9.0 points on 26.9 percent shooting in three meetings against the Huskies.<\/p>\n

Connecticut dropped both games of its recent road trip against Seton Hall and Rutgers, failing to cover the spread as three and six points favorites respectively.\u00a0 \u201cWe weren\u2019t very well-prepared to play basketball the last two games,\u201d commented Huskies head coach Jim Calhoun.\u00a0 \u201cI am incredibly disappointed in how we\u2019re playing right now.\u201d\u00a0 The Huskies are led offensively by guard Jeremy Lamb, who is averaging 18.2 points per game.\u00a0 He has managed to top the 20-point mark five times this year.\u00a0 Connecticut is 2-4 ATS as a home favorite of 3.5 to 6 points the last two-plus campaigns.<\/p>\n

The Huskies are a perfect 6-0 when playing in Hartford this season, posting a 224-81 all-time mark when playing inside the XL Center.\u00a0 Connecticut hasn\u2019t lost three consecutive games since March 2010, but could definitely bounce back due to hitting a Big East-leading 42 percent from beyond the arc on its home court.\u00a0 Sophomore guard Shabazz Napier has been battling a sore ankle recently that has limited his practice time, but he did manage to pour in 23 points in 38 minutes played in the team\u2019s loss against Rutgers.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Huskies due to their 7-3 ATS mark versus Big East opponents, while the Mountaineers are 3-7 ATS in the last 10 meetings.<\/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":"

West Virginia Mountaineers at No. 8 Connecticut Huskies Monday, 1\/9\/12, 7:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2 Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Connecticut -5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Connecticut -5 Opening Total:\u00a0 137.5 Current Total:\u00a0 139 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker West Virginia has started Big East Conference play with a 3-1 record, including a 74-62 victory over the Georgetown Hoyas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[2497,2499,5665,1304,5935,449],"class_list":["post-20944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-big-east-conference","tag-connecticut-huskies","tag-jeremy-lamb","tag-jim-calhoun","tag-kevin-jones","tag-west-virginia-mountaineers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20944","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=20944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20945,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20944\/revisions\/20945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}