[Willie Bee]

http://www.sportsbookreview.com/Article/200611281603.aspx

#19 Maryland at Illinois, 7:00 PM (ET) ESPN

Something’s got to give tonight at Assembly Hall in Champaign as Maryland and Illinois both enter the game with identical 7-0 records.

The Terrapins’ 7-0 mark includes a 92-60 win at St. John’s and a 62-60 nail-biter against Michigan State at Madison Square Garden in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic on Nov 17. Maryland’s other wins came against Hampton, Vermont, Florida A&M, Winthrop and High Point.

Gary Williams enters his 18th season running the Terps, and his 29th season as a head coach in the collegiate ranks. Maryland is averaging over 83 points per game so far this season, hitting 48.7% from the field, nearly 72% from the line and over 37% from long range.

The team is paced by three seniors with guard DJ Strawberry (6-5) leading the team in scoring (16.0). Mike Jones (6-5) is averaging 12.6 points per game while Ekene Ibekwe (6-9) tops the team with a 7.3 rebound average. Freshman Eric Hayes (6-3) tops all Terps with 5.1 assists per game.

Illinois head coach Bruce Weber enters his fourth season at the helm of the Illini, and has had the team in the NCAA tourney each of his previous three seasons while compiling a 89-16 record overall, and 39-9 mark in Big Ten play. Illinois has scored 75 or more points in six of their seven victories so far, and rallied from a 33-26 deficit against Miami (Oh) for a 51-49 win in the game they did not score at least 75.

Jamar Smith (So, 6-3) tops all Fighting Illini with 16.5 points per game, and is hitting over 57% of his 3-point attempts. Chester Frazier (So, 6-2) adds 11.6 per game plus a team-best 7.0 assists. Warren Carter (Sr, 6-9) is grabbing 5.9 rebounds per game.

Illinois is listed a 3-point favorites for this one. The Illini are 2-2 this year in lined games as the favorite.

[Willie Bee]

Florida St at #13 Wisconsin, 7:30 PM (ET) ESPN2

The Badgers (5-1) host the Seminoles (4-1) at Kohl Center on the Wisconsin campus in Madison, and the game marks the second of three straight against ranked teams for Florida State.

The Seminoles started the season with four relatively easy wins over McNeese St., Illinois St., SMU and New Orleans, though they did have to fight back from a 1-point deficit at halftime to top SMU. Leonard Hamilton enters his fifth season at Florida State with a 65-58 record running the Seminoles who are averaging a bit over 70 points per game and hitting 48.5% of their field goals, 37.4% from 3-point range.

Al Thornton (Sr, 6-8) leads Florida St with 16 points per game and a 5.4 rebound average. Toney Douglas (So, 6-1) adds 13.2 per game with a team-leading 3.6 assist average.

Now in his sixth season at Wisconsin, Bo Ryan came into the 2006-07 campaign with a 112-49 record as the Badgers’ head coach. Wisconsin began the year with wins over Mercer, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Southern and Delaware St before dropping a 66-64 decision to Missouri St at the South Padre Island Invitational last Friday that served to drop the Badgers from #7 to #13.

Wisconsin bounced back the next night to top Auburn, 77-63. Alando Tucker (Sr, 6-6) is averaging over 20 points per game while also grabbing 3.5 rebounds for the Badgers. Kammron Taylor (Sr, 6-2), who scored 16 in the win over Auburn, is next on the team with an 11.2 scoring average. Michael Flowers (Jr, 6-2) leads the team with 3.7 assists while Joe Krabbenhoft (So, 6-7) is the team’s leading rebounder with a 6.3 average.

The Badgers enter the contest as 10½-point home chalk, their first game of the season as the double-digit favorite. Florida St is 0-1 on the young season as road dogs in the 9½-12 point range, that loss coming at Pittsburgh by an 88-66 count.

[Willie Bee]

Penn State at #24 Georgia Tech, 8:00 PM (ET) ESPNU

After opening the season with five straight wins that included a pair of 100+ point performances, Georgia Tech dropped an 88-73 decision to then #5 UCLA in the championship game of the Maui Invitational last week to take them to 5-1 on the season. The Yellow Jackets will try to get back on the winning track tonight at home in the Alexander Memorial Coliseum when they host the Penn State Nittany Lions (4-1).

Paul Hewitt, in his sixth season as the head coach of the Yellow Jackets, has watched his team average over 88 per game so far, and beat then-#11 Memphis 92-85 in the second round out in Hawaii. The Ramblin’ Wreck opened that tournament with a win over a Big Ten school, taking down Purdue by 18 points, 79-61,

The team is led by a couple of young guards, Lewis Clinch (So, 6-3) and Javaris Crittenton (Fr, 6-5). Clinch is averaging 17 per game up to now while Crittenton’s all-around play includes a 14.2 scoring average, 4.0 rebounds and a team-leading 6.0 assists.

In his 16th season overall with Penn State, and his fourth as the team’s head coach, Ed DeChelis’ squad is averaging a little more than 62 per game, shooting just 41.9% from the floor and 31.3% from 3-point range. Their four wins have come against Morehead St, UNC-Greensboro, Bucknell and St. Joseph’s, with the loss a 59-51 upset at home in State College to Stony Brook.

Jamelle Cornley (So, 6-5) tops the Lions with 15.8 points and 9.0 rebounds per contest. Danny Morrissey (So, 6-3) is scoring at a 12.8 clip while Ben Luber (Sr, 6-0) adds an even 10 per game.

The Yellow Jackets are heavy favorites tonight, giving up 15 points to Penn State. Georgia Tech is 2-0 so far this season at home and favored by more than 12½ while the Nittany Lions are 3-0 so far this season against the spread in all lined games.

[Willie Bee]

Indiana at #10 Duke, 9:00 PM (ET) ESPN

A couple of storied programs get it on at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham as the Indiana Hoosiers (3-1) visit the Duke Blue Devils (5-1).

After 12 seasons running the show at Oklahoma, Kelvin Sampson is now in his first year with Indiana, and it’s been a rocky start for Sampson who earlier this season faced discipline for some shady recruiting while with the Sooners. The team’s three wins have come against Lafayette, Indiana St. and Chicago St., with the loss a 60-55 thumping to Butler in the NIT Season Tip-Off tourney that was Indiana’s second game of the season.

Averaging 77.3 per game and shooting just below 50% from the field, Indiana is led by 6-4 senior guard Roderick Wilmont’s 14.3 points. DJ White (Jr, 6-9) is scoring 14.0 per game with a team-best 7.5 rebounds. And despite playing just 18 minutes a night, freshman Armon Bassett (6-1) tops the Hoosiers with a 4.3 assist rate.

Mike Krzyzewski is now in his 27th season as the Blue Devils’ head coach, with a sparkling 648-187 overall record that includes 22 trips to the NCAA tournament and three national titles. Duke got out of the gate this season with four wins before being spanked by then-#17 Marquette, 73-62, in the CBE Classic at Kansas City. The Blue Devils came back a few nights after that loss with a 75-47 cruiser at home over Davidson.

DeMarcus Nelson (Jr, 6-4) tops the Duke charts with 13.5 points per game, also contributing 5.3 rebounds. Big Josh McRoberts (So, 6-10) leads the team with 6.7 boards and is adding 11.3 points plus 4.2 assists. Greg Paulus (So, 6-1) leads the squad with 4.7 assists each contest.

Duke, 5-1 overall against the spread this year and 4-0 as home favorites of 12½ or more, is listed as 13-point chalk for this one.

[Willie Bee]

Miami (Fla) at Northwestern, 9:30 PM (ET) ESPN2

The Hurricanes (4-2) travel to Evanston to take on the Wildcats (3-2), with Miami having dropped two of their three road games this year while Northwestern has won their last three home games after dropping their season opener at Welsh-Ryan Arena to Cornell, 64-61.

The Wildcats also fell at Stanford, 58-53, for their other loss this season. Their wins have come against DePaul (49-39), Brown (64-40) and North Florida (40-39), the latter a contest in which both teams combined to shoot a sickly 32% from the floor and just 6-of-11 from the free throw stripe.

Coached by Bill Carmody who entered his seventh season as the NW head coach with an 82-95 record, the Wildcats are averaging 53.4 points per game thus far in the season. Tim Doyle (Sr, 6-5) leads the team in scoring (11.6) and assists (5.8), and is complemented by Kevin Coble (Fr, 6-10) and Sterling Williams (So, 6-4).

Miami opened with three wins over Florida International, Alcorn St and Evansville before falling at Buffalo and Cleveland St. The Canes bounced back after the loss to Cleveland St. with a 98-66 win at home over Lafayette. In his third season as head coach, Frank Haith, a former assistant at Texas A&M, Texas and Wake Forest, came into this season with a 34-29 record with the Canes and a pair of NIT appearances.

The top two scorers for Miami are both sophomores as Jack McClinton (6-1) is averaging 19.3 per game while Brian Asbury (6-7) adds 11 per contest. Anthony King (Sr, 6-9) leads the squad with 10.2 rebounds while Anthony Harris (Sr, 6-2) leads the team with 5.8 assists per game.

Northwestern comes into the game as slim 1-point faves with the O/U set at 114. Miami is 2-2 so far against the spread while the Wildcats are 3-1 versus the number.

[bigboydan]

Bruce Weber has Illinois comming out of the gate very strong once again this year, and seems to be surging right now. However, I think Maryland will pull off the upset tonight. The one I really like tonight is Indiana +13 over Duke. That game really looks really strong to me tonight.

[Illusion]

Bruce Weber has Illinois comming out of the gate very strong once again this year, and seems to be surging right now. However, I think Maryland will pull off the upset tonight. The one I really like tonight is Indiana +13 over Duke. That game really looks really strong to me tonight.

Nice call, the win snapped Illinois' 51 game non conference winning streak which was the nations longest current active streak. Illinois' last non conference loss was against George Washington back in 1998

[bigboydan]

Thanks ILL

IL is really down this year talent wise IMO. I feel we can really get some nice value on some over inflated lines in the next few weeks.

[Willie Bee]

Should've taken your advice on the Indiana pick, Dan. But I'm feeling pretty good this a.m. about my Maryland and NW plays.