We gave you some “big picture” conference tournament information yesterday.  Today let’s move on to some nuts and bolts in the Wednesday hoops card.

1. Fatigue won’t necessarily be a big factor in the early Big East games today.   Depaul didn’t provide much of a challenge to South Florida, with the Bulls winning by 9 despite hitting 0-15 from the perimeter (including 0-8 from 3-point land) and only 6-14 from the line.   Obviously USF played well other than outside shooting, but those horrendous shooting numbers show that anyone else in the league would have beaten the Bulls yesterday, as Depaul is just dreadful.  USF is certainly due to shoot better. 

2. Three bench players for St. John’s saw 15 minutes or more in their wipeout of the underachieving Connecticut Huskies.  Will St. John’s fans go “back to the future” and actually support the team in the Garden today?  It’s worth noting that since conference play started, underdogs are 10-3 against the spread in Marquette games provided the pointspread is more than 2.  The Warriors Golden Eagles simply play to their level of competition, and it will be no surprise if this battle with the Redmen Red Storm goes down to the wire as well.  Marquette opened favored by 3.5 points, after being a 1.5-point favorite at Carnesseca Arena a couple of weeks ago in a 2-point overtime win over St. John’s.

3.  A Big East night game may have  a team fresher than expected, as well. Don’t automatically assume that Seton Hall will be drained from their 109-106 regulation win over Providence.  The Pirates typically get up and down the court and only one starter played more than 31 minutes.  There was also plenty of standing around while the 82 free throws were taken.

4. There are a couple of “donkey games” on Wednesday out west.   Oregon vs. Washington State is no prize.  But it’s tough to find an uglier matchup than Air Force and Wyoming in the Mountain West, as these would be the worst two teams in any power conference, as well as the Missouri Valley, the WAC, and, if it weren’t for Fordham, in the Atlantic 10 as well.   Wyoming has been opened a narrow favorite by Vegas and online sportsbooks.    More importantly, don’t forget that the top Mountain West teams that will end up in various tournaments benefited from beating up on these two dregs.

5. Remember that we work very hard on the postseason tournaments and most years our hard work pays off.  Historically we’ve done well in the conference tournaments, the NCAA tournament, and the end of the NBA regular season.  To take advantage of this package, discounted to less than $9 per day, call me at 770-649-1078.