{"id":21541,"date":"2012-02-06T10:55:21","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T15:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=21541"},"modified":"2012-02-06T10:55:21","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T15:55:21","slug":"connecticut-vs-louisville-big-east-conference-rivals-meet-inside-the-kfc-yum-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/connecticut-vs-louisville-big-east-conference-rivals-meet-inside-the-kfc-yum-center-21541\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut vs. Louisville: Big East Conference Rivals Meet Inside the KFC Yum! Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connecticut Huskies at No. 25 Louisville Cardinals
\nMonday, 2\/6\/12, 7:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Louisville -4.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Louisville -4
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 128.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 129.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Two of college basketball's best defenses meet up inside the KFC Yum! Center Monday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Connecticut snapped a four-game losing streak with a 69-46 win over the Seton Hall Pirates as 8.5-point home favorites on Saturday, playing without head coach Jim Calhoun on the sidelines.\u00a0 He has been suffering from severe back pain and will be away from the program for an indeterminate amount of time.\u00a0 \u201cWe just wanted to win,\u201d commented Huskies guard Ryan Boatright.\u00a0 Offensively, the team is being led by All-America candidate Jeremy Lamb, who is averaging 17.6 points per game.\u00a0 Connecticut is 17-7 ATS as an underdog the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Huskies have won five of their last eight true road games during the regular season.\u00a0 Connecticut is certainly led by its defense, allowing opponents to shoot just 36.7 percent from the field, which is second among Big East Conference teams during the 2011-12 campaign.\u00a0 In the latest win, the Huskies allowed the Pirates to shoot just 25.9 percent, while holding them to 19.2 percent from beyond the arc in the two-game series this year.<\/p>\n

Louisville is getting hot at the right time in winning four straight and has gone \u201cover\u201d the total in four of five games.\u00a0 The Cardinals have three players in the starting lineup averaging in double figures, with senior forward Kyle Kuric leading the way, averaging 13.2 points per game.\u00a0 Center Gorgui Dieng has also proven to be an important player in grabbing a team-high 9.5 rebounds per game, but may be slowed down by a sprained ankle in this contest.\u00a0 \u201cWhat I have seen in the past is that you can play on it but then it will swell,\u201d commented Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino on the situation.\u00a0 Louisville is 1-3 ATS as a home favorite of 3.5 to 6 points.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals also bring it on the defensive end, holding opponents to 37 percent shooting from the floor, which ranks third nationally.\u00a0 Louisville has been fantastic during the month of February since 2005, posting a 38-12 record in that span.\u00a0 Freshman forward Chane Behanan has really been coming on of late, averaging 14.8 points and grabbing 9.4 rebounds over his last five games.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Cardinals due to their 4-0 ATS mark versus conference opponents, while the Huskies are 1-5 ATS on the road.<\/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":"

Connecticut Huskies at No. 25 Louisville Cardinals Monday, 2\/6\/12, 7:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Louisville -4.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Louisville -4 Opening Total:\u00a0 128.5 Current Total:\u00a0 129.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Connecticut snapped a four-game losing streak with a 69-46 win over the Seton Hall Pirates as 8.5-point home favorites on Saturday, […]<\/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":[2497,2499,5665,1304,5939,5941,556,755],"class_list":["post-21541","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-kfc-yum-center","tag-kyle-kuric","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-rick-pitino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21541","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=21541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21542,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21541\/revisions\/21542"}],"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=21541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}