Originally Posted by
regularguy
Hi Guys.
I'm putting a small play on Santa Clara +10.5 at Utah.
I won with Nevada covering against Santa Clara, at Nevada, on Saturday night. I saw the game. Santa Clara is a very scrappy, determined team. I think the new coach has them motivated. The big guy (John Bryant) is not fast, but he has surprisingly good hands and a nice shot for a guy who looks like an NFL tackle. He is a force underneath. Also, Santa Clara has a couple of very good ball handlers/shooters out front. This is not a bad team. They will get some wins this year.
Utah also has a new coach, and looks to be pretty good. They are coming off a loss at Washington. They stayed pretty close, but didn't get it done.
Utah may well beat Santa Clara, but the thing that compels me to bet on Santa Clara is the way they stayed with Nevada. Nevada had a good night shooting, and went on two or three good runs. Each time Santa Clara fought back. Nevada won by 13, but the contest was really closer than that. If I remember right, Nevada finished with a 12-point run in the last few minutes, and Nevada hit a garbage 3 pointer right at the buzzer. I was a little bit lucky to get out of that one with the cover.
At any rate, I really like Santa Clara's chances of staying within 10.5 of Utah.
(For the record, I also will have a small pay on Princeton -- thanks for that call, Regul8er.)