{"id":27435,"date":"2013-01-23T11:02:37","date_gmt":"2013-01-23T16:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=27435"},"modified":"2013-01-23T11:02:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-23T16:02:37","slug":"ncaa-basketball-picks-minnesota-golden-gophers-vs-northwestern-wildcats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/ncaa-basketball-picks-minnesota-golden-gophers-vs-northwestern-wildcats-27435\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Basketball Picks: Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Northwestern Wildcats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Golden Gophers at Northwestern Wildcats
\nWednesday, 1\/23\/12, 9:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 Big Ten Network
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Minnesota -8.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Minnesota -8.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 132.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 132
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The Minnesota Golden Gophers will try to snap a two-game losing streak Wednesday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Minnesota will look to get back on the winning side of things after dropping back-to-back games, including an 83-75 setback to the Michigan Wolverines as 2.5-point home favorites last time out.\u00a0 \u201cWe got off to another slow start again,\u201d commented Golden Gophers guard Joe Coleman.\u00a0 The Golden Gophers won their first three Big Ten Conference games by an average of 16.0 points, which includes a 69-51 victory over Northwestern as 17-point home favorites earlier this month.\u00a0 Minnesota is 4-0 ATS on the road this season, which can\u2019t be ignored when making your NCAA basketball picks Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The Golden Gophers have three players that have double-digit career point averages against the Wildcats, with Andre Hollins being one of them, while also averaging a team and career-high 14.3 points overall during the 2012-13 season.\u00a0 Minnesota leads the Big Ten in averaging 6.4 blocks and 9.6 steals per game, which isn\u2019t very surprising under the leadership of head coach Tubby Smith.\u00a0 On the other end of the floor, the program paces all teams within the conference in averaging 16.0 offensive rebounds per game, which provides a lift for its scoring.<\/p>\n

Northwestern is set to play its third straight game against a ranked opponent, as it has alternated wins and losses over its last five games, coming off a 67-59 decision to the Indiana Hoosiers as 12-point home underdogs Sunday.\u00a0 \u201cIt seems to me we\u2019re making some steps,\u201d stated Wildcats head coach Bill Carmody.\u00a0 \u201cI think we\u2019re getting better.\u201d\u00a0 The Wildcats will try to force the Golden Gophers into mistakes by utilizing a 1-3-1 zone on the defensive end.\u00a0 Northwestern is 7-14 ATS as a home underdog of 6.5 to 9 points in its last 21 opportunities.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats trailed the Golden Gophers by just three points at the half in their first meeting, while Reggie Hearn led three players in double figures with 11 points.\u00a0 He is averaging a team-high 14.5 points per game.\u00a0 Sophomore point guard Dave Sobolewski is a key player to watch on the offensive end, as ranks fifth in the conference in averaging 4.4 assists per game.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Golden Gophers due to their 14-3 ATS mark on the road, while the underdog is 1-6 ATS in the last seven meetings in this series.<\/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":"

Minnesota Golden Gophers at Northwestern Wildcats Wednesday, 1\/23\/12, 9:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 Big Ten Network Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Minnesota -8.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Minnesota -8.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 132.5 Current Total:\u00a0 132 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Minnesota will look to get back on the winning side of things after dropping back-to-back games, including an 83-75 setback […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":26015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[7301,3442,464,3119,7204],"class_list":["post-27435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-andre-hollins","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-minnesota-golden-gophers","tag-northwestern-wildcats","tag-reggie-hearn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27435","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=27435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27436,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27435\/revisions\/27436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}