Here are 5 things to know as you prepare for Thursday night’s pointspread battles against the offshore sportsbooks, as well as the Las Vegans and the locals.  And it’s a Thursday night with loads of intrigue in the college ranks, as well as the final three NBA matchups before the break.

1. The players welcome the time off, but Don Nelson (who is a big, career-ruining meanie according to Al Harrington), can’t like the timing of the All Star break, as his Golden State Warriors head into tonight’s contest with Portland winners of 3 of 4 and outperforming pointspread expectations recently, with a 11-5-2 spread mark in their last 18 games.  After 20 straight games in which an opponent hadn’t eclipsed 50% shooting, the Warriors allowed over 54% shooting to the Knicks Tuesday night, but it didn’t matter, as New York’s defense was even worse in a 144-127 Warrior win.

2. Some pretty good local rivalries tonight, with St. Joe’s taking on Temple in am A-10 (and Big 5) battle that’s always meaningful to Cheesesteakers, while Illinois travels to Evanston to take on upstate Big 10 rival Northwestern, winners of 5 of their last 7.  The Wildcats are willing to grind it out and they may find a willing pace partner in an Illini (the NCAA’s PC police still allows them to be called the Illini, right?) team has gone under in 8 of their last 9 games.  This is only the second meeting between these two in the last 725 days, as the Big 10 has done a poorer job maintaining hoops rivalries than some other conferences, seeing them get watered down with once-a-year play.

3. Gonzaga’s trip to Moraga, Califoria seemed like a big deal a couple of weeks ago, but the air has been let out of St. Mary’s balloon with the injury to Aussie point guard Patty Mills in the first go-around between these two teams.  Mills has proven to be as meaningful to his team as anyone in the country.  St. Mary’s eked out a 2-point cover in beating a bad San Francisco team by 19 as a 17-point favorite.  But that Gaels win was sandwiched around outright losses when favored against Portland and Santa Clara in which Mills-free SMC missed the pointspread by a combined 46 points.

4. UCLA has won 4 straight, all at Pauley Pavilion, covering all 4 contests by a combined 51 points.  Alfred Aboya’s emergence as a force at the center position is a big reason for UCLA’s step up, as he’s been snuffing out opposing big men defensively while averaging over 14 points and nearly 8 rebounds during the winning streak.   UCLA heads to Tempe seeking revenge against a Sun Devil team that held the Bruins scoreless in the last 8:12 of regulation in a 61-58 OT upset in Westwood last month.

5. Craig Robinson has improved Oregon State, and the storyline (he’s Barack Obama’s brother-in-law!!!!!!) is irresistible.  But projecting the Beavers improvement has not necessarily been profitable for bettors, as OSU is only 8-9 against the pointspread (5-6 to the number in Pac Ten play).  Vegas and offshore sportsbooks have adjusted to the improved play in Corvallis.  But betting on negative effects of Robinson’s departure from Brown has been a moneymaker, as the Bears are a pitiful 3-9 against the pointspread this season.

We’ll be handicapping for our private clients on Friday, but there isn’t nearly enough action to support a “Starting 5″.  We’ll be back with you for Saturday’s card.  On Friday look for some sports betting industry notes  at RealWorldSports.com.  Good luck and be careful.

5 starting points for your Wednesday basketball.

1. Duke opened a 1.5-point home dog to North Carolina.  How often are the Blue Devils an underdog at Cameron?  Only twice in the last decade, and both times to UNC.  Two years ago, the Heels beat Duke by 6 as a 4-point road favorite.  Back in 2005, Duke won 71-70 as a 1.5 point dog, which is the last time they beat UNC on this court.  And when we say that the Blue Devils have only been a home dog twice in the last decade, that’s as far back as we looked.  So it might be longer.

2. The most interesting individual piece of data discovered in researching this rivalry was the reminder of how dreadful UNC was in 2001-02, the second of the 3-year Matt Doherty era (or is it “Matt Doherty error”?).  Duke was a 28-point favorite over the Tar Heels in the regular season finale, and offshore sportsbooks had the Dookies at -26 and higher in the opening round of the ACC tournament.  Duke won without covering in both instances.  Carolina finished that season 8-20, while Duke was favored in every game but one (+1.5 in a road loss at eventual national champion Maryland).  The Blue Devils season came to a surprising halt when they  were upset as a double-digit favorite by Indiana in the NCAA tournament.  That was the spring that new IU coach Mike Davis looked like a budding genius.  While lacking in pointspread data, you may enjoy blowing a few minutes of your day on this recap of this rivalry between Duke and North Carolina.  ACC rivals Boston College and Florida State do not have a Wikipedia entry covering their history against one another.

3. How does double-digit underdog Syracuse come out tonight at #1 UConn?  The Orangemen have lost 4 straight road games, and in individual halves in those 4 games have allowed opponents to score 44, 47, 49, 50, 53, and 56 points.   Eric Devendorf turned the ball over 22 times in the 4 losses, with only 8 assists.  This veteran team offers little defensive resistance. Jim Boeheim, whose teams are always defensively sound when they make a tourney run, has to be tearing out what little hair he has left.

4. Robbie Hummel needs to get healthy for Purdue.  The Boilermakers are 0-3 without him, though they should be able to handle Penn State tonight.  If Hummel, PU’s primary scoring threat, gets healthy, look out for the Boilermakers. Matt Painter’s defense is holding opponents to less than 39% from the field.  That’s less than 39% of their 2-point attempts. Wow.

5.  The LA Clippers head home tonight to host a Knicks team on a back-to-back. Heading to Memphis last Friday night the Clippers had lost 7 straight, failing to cover every one of those games.  They had shot below 50% from the field in 48 of their 49 games.  Yet the Clippers somehow managed to sink 59% of their shots at lousy Memphis and the next night hit 57% of their attempts in Atlanta (Mike Bibby a late scratch) in winning those games by a combined 45 points.   No surprise that LA fell to earth in a 94-73 loss Monday night in Charlotte.  The Clippers 2-game 95-164 barrage from the field in Memphis and Atlanta is the very definition of the word “outlier”.

Hope Wednesday night treats you well.  Good luck and be careful.

We’ll try to be as close to daily as possible with our new “Starting Five” feature, designed to offer a quick burst of information to those interesting in basketball wagering, whether the activity is online sports wagering, action with Vegas books, or through friendly neighborhood sorts.  Here are five notes to start your look at Tuesday night’s basketball card.

1. A thought that a “vacation lookahead” may lead to a lack of defensive intensity and high scoring NBA results had mixed results when researched, and happily, the work wasn’t done until this year.  Two years ago Monday through Thursday prior to the All Star Break saw totals go 16-8 to the over.   That pattern didn’t repeat last season, with a 12-16 mark favoring the under.  Games that weren’t supposed to be competitive, lined over 7, favored the over with an 11-7 mark.  Games lined 7 and under saw an even split between overs and unders at 17-17.

2. Last night’s quartet of NBA affairs went saw just a single over, with the 3 unders staying below the number by 1, 20, and 30.  The Bucks/Rockets game soared over by 40.

3. Michigan State travels to Michigan tonight and opened as a 4-point road favorite.  MSU is playing their 5th game in 13 days, prevailing in 4 of the 5 with the winning margins being 11, 15, 28, and 29. Only 6 points in that 5-game span were scored by Raymar Morgan, likely to be out again tonight due to illness. Michigan battled UConn tough on Saturday, leading for long stretches and covering 16.5-points easily in a 69-61 loss.  UM has lost 6 of 8 but the encouraging UConn loss and a preceding 20-point win over Penn State may indicate a return to form for the Wolverines.

4. Revenge-minded UNLV hosts TCU tonight. Former Kent State coach Jim Christian had been getting a lot of positive press for TCU’s turnaround, as the Horned Frogs, who hadn’t had a winning season since 2004-2005, got off to a 13-5 start in Christian’s initial campaign.  But TCU has hit the skids, losing 4 in a row and failing to cover the spread in their last 5.   After allowing opponents to shoot better than 48% only 4 times in their first 19 games, the last 4 TCU opponents have shot in excess of that number, including 59%+ by Utah and 57%+ by New Mexico. Christian’s Kent State team won 11 of 12 before losing to UNLV in the NCAA’s last season (so this is the third time Christian and Lon Kruger are facing off in less than 11 months), but this TCU bunch looks like a tired team.

5. Speaking of Kent State, the Golden Flashes are in 6th and last place in the MAC East, yet opened a 10-point favorite at Northern Illinois, the 4th place team in the MAC West.  2nd place MAC East entrant Miami is opened minus-8 over Central Michigan, the 3rd place team in the Western Division.  But these fat lines don’t necessarily indicate home dog value, as the standings show that every team in the MAC East has a winning record while every team in the MAC West has a losing mark on the campaign.

Hope the “Starting 5″ is tipping off a fine Tuesday for you.  Good luck in your basketball betting and everything you do today.