Wednesday Night NCAA Basketball: Big East and SEC Free Picks

As some big Wednesday night games show themselves, I see myself going for the underdog, at least on my betting card. It’s conference time folks, and with a couple good teams battling on the road, I see no reason to run away from those free points…

Notre Dame Fighting Irish (+11) @ Villanova Wildcats: The Fighting Irish are trying to ride Luke Harengody to the Big Dance, but so far the Irish haven’t looked good against top competition. Luckily for them, in the Big East, there’s lots of opportunity to play high ranked teams and improve your tourney resume. The Irish are 4-3 in conference while ‘Nova has started Big East play with 7 straight wins and currently is the only undefeated Big East team in league play. Villanova is 18-1 on the season, 8-0 at home, and they doing it big, going 14-4 ATS so far this season. 53% of the public likes Notre Dame to cover the 11. And I agree, while I don’t expect them to win, I do expect the Irish to keep it close. Most good teams have stayed right with the Wildcats, Georgetown losing by 5, Louisville playing close throughout before losing by 8, Marquette losing twice by a basket – I mean, sure, Villanova is good, but Notre Dame can fill it up, and keeping it to single digits is very likely.

Vanderbilt Vandals (+5.5) @ Tennessee Volunteers: Tennessee has done a good job without a handful of troubled players and Wayne Chism might be back in the line-up on Wednesday, but I still see a tough task in taking out Vanderbilt for the powerful Vols. The Vols are coming off a loss to Georgia, and I felt that if they finally did have a bad loss (which a 15 point loss to Georgia is) then the wheels might come off a bit, or they might realize that they aren’t as armored as they thought. Vanderbilt plays tough, definitely, and they are at the top of the SEC East at 4-0 in league play. They are 10-6 ATS this season, and I think they have a good chance to pull the upset in Tennessee.