Super Bowl Sunday is here, but Bang the Book takes a look at who the hottest and coldest teams and players are through the first week of college basketball betting action in February. Check out who’s hot and who’s not this week, sponsored by Bet Phoenix! ATS Power Poll ATS Power Outage The Good
1: Northeastern Huskies (16-6-1 ATS): The Huskies may just be the hottest team in the country you’ve never heard of. The CAA reps are trying hard to get into the NCAA Tournament discussions just in case they don’t win their conference crown, and covers in 12 of their L/14 (13-1 SU) are only helping that cause.
2: UNLV Rebels: UNLV probably punched its ticket to March Madness with a dominant 88-74 win over BYU on Saturday. It was the Rebels’ tenth cover in their L/13 games, most of which have come in the very competition MWC.
3: Villanova Wildcats (15-6 ATS): It was a bad week to be from Villanova. The Cats were hooked by Seton Hall to kick off the week, and then were trounced at the Verizon Center by Georgetown to end it. It was just the second time all year that ‘Nova failed to cover two games in the same week (@ St. Joseph’s 12/9, @ Temple 12/13).
1: Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks (2-16 ATS): Hey, the Skyhawks are in the win column! A 74-69 loss at home against Austin Peay was worth rejoicing over for UTM, which finally beat the NCAA basketball betting odds at home for the first time on the year. Things returned back to normal on Saturday with a loss both SU and ATS to 5-20 Tennessee State.
2: LSU Tigers (5-14 ATS): The losses just keep piling up for the Bayou Bengals, but at least they found a way to beat a spread during the week when they pushed Tennessee to the brink. The good news is that LSU is far better off on the road for bettors (2-4 ATS) than it is at home (3-8 ATS), so maybe these two roadies this week will yield fruitful results.
3: Washington Huskies (7-15 ATS): U-Dub may have finally turned the corner, as it is starting to play like the NCAA Tournament team that everyone expected it to be at the start of the season. The Huskies have won four straight and are 2-1 ATS in that stretch (with the fourth game being an unlined 123-76 victory against Seattle). However, this week will be the first time they’ve hit the road since 1/23, and they haven’t covered the CBB betting lines as guests all season.
G Dominique Jones & the South Florida Bulls: With just a few seconds left in the game, USF’s superstar was shouting into the stunned Verizon Center crowd, “They came to see Dominique Jones play!” Jones went for 29 points and eight boards as South Florida upset Georgetown on the road 72-64 for its sixth straight cover and fourth straight SU victory in the crowded Big East. A win on Sunday against Notre Dame might even put this team back on the NCAA Tournament map for what would be the first time ever as a member of the Big East.
The Bad
Being a Top-25 Team on Saturday: Just check out this list of Top-25 teams that were knocked off to start this weekend SU… #2 Villanova (L 103-90 @ Georgetown), #5 Michigan State (L 78-73 @ Illinois) #10 Texas (L 80-71 @ Oklahoma), #12 BYU (L 88-74 @ UNLV), #17 Temple (L 71-54 @ Richmond), #20 Vanderbilt (L 72-58 @ Georgia). Add that to the list of teams that won outright but didn’t cover their basketball betting lines, #1 Kansas, #9 Duke, #11 Kansas State, #19 Georgia Tech, #22 Northern Iowa, #23 New Mexico, and #25 Cornell, and ranked teams went a grand total of just 8-13 ATS on Saturday.
The Ugly
Bryant Bulldogs & Alcorn State Braves: It’s not often that you see NCAA basketball gambling spreads on either Bryant or Alcorn State games, but the prospects of both teams pulling off totally winless seasons is starting to look more and more possible. The Bulldogs, dropped to 0-24 with two losses this week to Central Connecticut State by an aggregate score of 121-82. They’ve lost 26 straight dating back to last year. Meanwhile, the Braves have dropped 27 straight overall including ‘08-’09 after losing by 21 to Jackson State on Saturday. It doesn’t get much uglier than these two teams, and it doesn’t look like either has the ability to win anything anytime in the near future.
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