December 13th 2009

Wow, I am soo impressed with Purdue...after being down by 16 in the second half to battle back and win by 8 was unbelievable. "If you learn to quit, it becomes a habit" (Vince Lombardi) and this team proved that they will never quit and seem to have something special this season.


Late Night Plays:

The Spurs -6 on the hardwood.

Cincinnati Bearcats at Xavier Musketeers (-3.5)

While the Bearcats have only won 1 of the last 4 meetings between these two, they have covered the number in 3 of 4. The Musketeers have lose 40 points in last year’s victory with the departure of Brown, Anderson, and Raymond, while the top scoring in last year’s contest, Deonta Vaughn for Cincinnati with 27 points, will be returning for the Bearcats. Xavier has three good loses in Kansas State, Baylor, and Marquette; however, have no good wins other than over a mediocre Creighton team. On the other side of the ball, Cincinnati have a great lose in overtime to Gonzaga 59-61 and two great wins over Maryland and Vanderbilt by 9 and 12 points. The Bearcats will be a team in the upper half of the Big East this season and while many people feel this is a down year for this conference...I could not agree more with both West Virginia and Syracuse looking as though they are both deserving of number one seeds in the NCAA tournament.

PICK: Bearcats +4.0


Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants (1.0)

Sunday night, under the lights in a divisional game, should be a great one...right? Well if The good Giant team shows up then it may be close; however, if they do not the Eagles will roll out of the Big Apple with an easy victory, as they did in their previous meeting this season 40-17. In that beat down the turnover ratio was won by the Eagles 3-2 and most of the rushing and passing yards were fairly equal. The big problem for the Giants was big plays they allowed on defence. A 41 and 66 yard run, both for touchdowns...and a 54 and 23 yard pass, also both for touchdowns. The big play threats did not go anywhere for the Eagles and Antonio Pierce (New York’s quarterback on defence), who played in the last meeting, will be out of action here. The defence will play conservative in an attempt to prevent big plays; however, this may allow Philadelphia to pick up small chunks of yardage and methodically drive the ball down the field.

PICK: Eagles -1.0

Villanova Wildcats at Temple Owls (3.0)

These two usually meet up every year and in the last 7 meetings, The Wildcats have won 6 including the last 4 in a row. Temple has proven they will be a good team with wins over Virginia Tech and Siena, but have not faced a team with the talent level that Villanova has. The guard trio of Reynolds, Fisher, and Stokes will create steals on the defensive end and either score or build up fouls when they penetrate on the offensive end. Last year’s meeting saw Villanova win 62-45 and while The Wildcats no longer have Anderson and Cunningham, The Owls have lost the face of their school in Dionte Christmas. Up until last year, Villanova had covered the spread in their last 5 straight and while playing on the road to good teams in Maryland and St. Joseph’s were good wins, they gave up 86 and 89 points in both games. Temple will try to slow the pace of this one down as they cannot keep pace with the high powered scorers for The Wildcats. In saying this it should not matter as Villanova will take advantages of turnovers and push the ball on the break, taking advantage of their quick transition game.

PICK: Wildcats -3.0