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Regul8er's NCAAB Wed Card (11/18/2009)
Two picks on the card today, and I have already seen other posters list these as there plays of the day:
1) Cornell Big Red (-2.5, -107)
Absolutely love this play. Cornell is about as experienced, savvy and poised a bunch in divison I basketball today. They have gone to the big dance the past 2 years, jumpfrogging Penn and Princeton as the class of the Ivy League. What makes me feel even better is the fact that they return all 5 starters from last year. There top three players all being seniors (Dale, Foote, Wittman) should carry the load. All three are predicted to be 1st team all Ivy League Players according to the polls. Heck, they even went into Tuscaloosa and beat a very good Alabama squad four days ago.
UMass is a team struggling to find an identity the past few years. Here's a team that was expected to finish in the top half of the Atlantic 10 last year, and failed miserably finishing with a conference record of 7-9 and 12-18 overall. They do return there leading scorer Ricky Harris, but lose two critical pieces; point guard Chris Lowe and big man Tony Gaffney. Lowe was a solid point general, averaging 12.4 points and 6.4 assists. Gaffney was a force inside, scoring 11.5 points, grabbing 10.2 boards and swatting 3.7 shots. Pretty hard to replace that production. In fact, in UMas's opener, they lost by 17 at Central Florida, while starting two freshman and two sophomores, along with Harris.
GIMMIE THE BIG RED HERE!
2) Butler Bulldogs (-4.5, -108)
Butler is a little bit younger then Cornell, but still has a wealth of experience. They return 7 of there top 9 scorers from a year ago. They've got a handful of guys who can hit shots from beyond the arc, have a solid presence in the paint with Howard and Heyward and above all are very well coached. This is a program that no one wants to play these days.
On the other hand, Northwestern has a lot of pieces to pick up after a surprising NIT appearance last year. Losing Kevin Coble for the season with foot surgery is really going to hurt the Wildcats. Coble has picked up 15 points per game each of the last two campaigns, on a team that has a difficult time scoring. He is also their leader on the floor who plays balls to wall every night. To make matters worse, they lost Craig Moore to graduation (14.3 ppg) who along with Coble were the two real 3 point threats this team had.
Northwestern will undoubtedly try and slow the pace, and could keep it close for a while, but I see them faltering down the stretch with the lack of a late game scorer.
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Originally Posted by HoulihansTX
