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.