While lesser lights like Virginia, NC State, Nebraska and Air Force have won and covered conference games in recent days, a number of the nation’s top teams make their conference tourney debut today.  Let’s take a look at some things you should be aware of before you bet on or against these top tier college hoops teams.

1. Kentucky coach John Calapari, concerned about his team’s inexperience, brought in a sports psychologist to talk to his young team about the pressure they will face during the tournament season.  Meanwhile, sports media scuttlebutt has it that there will be an interesting story coming out about Calipari’s recruitment of a couple of his freshmen. 

2. Michigan State’s Tom Izzo has disciplined a guard for the fourth time this season.  Izzo has suspended guard Chris Allen, a solid three-point shooter and defender, ”indefinitely”, which means at least for a single game.   The Spartans mentor is tight-lipped about the reasons why, calling it a “basketball related issue” and saying that Allen has to “learn about responsibility”.

3. Duke’s playing great ball.  Despite being a public team that people love to bet, meaning their lines are inflated, the Blue Devils are trashing the Vegas and offshore line with a 18-11-1 pointspread mark.   But are the Blue Devils prepared to thrive playing three consecutive days?   Three of the top four ”most minutes” players in the ACC are Blue Devils starters Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith, and Kyle Singler.  There is a chance that the longer the ACC tournament goes, the more likely their lack of quality depth will hurt them.

4. Nobody would accuse Wisconsin of having top-tier talent, but Bo Ryan simply gets it done with the players he has year-in and year-out.  The Badgers have won 9 of their last 11 and enter today’s game against Wisconsin on a 7-3 pointspread run.   Wisconsin and Illini split a pair of games that saw neither one of them anywhere near the pointspread. The Illini covering by 16 points in an outright win at Madison while the Badgers returned the favor on the road, winning by 15 as 3-point favorites to get some revenge.

5.  And who is the hottest pointspread team of the top-tier outfits playing for the first time today?  How about the Maryland Terrapins, a remarkable 14-3 to the line at Vegas and online sportsbooks.   Gary Williams has his team cooking, but admits to the club being “mentally tired” while Greivis Vasquez talks of the effort being expended by the Terps being “exhausting”.   Obviously the break came at the perfect time for the Terps, who play for the first time in six days today.

As this is filed we have plenty of work to do heading into Friday’s tournament action.  The work begins the night before with box score analysis and noting details from game reports. It continues into the morning as we analyze style matchups and late reports from local reporters and beat writers on the scene.   If you want to take advantage of all the hard work call 770-649-1078 and ask about our tournament package.