Here are some news and notes from a pointspread perspective for those who may have some wagering interest in Wednesday night’s college basketball card.

1. New Mexico got off to a fast start but have been a money-burning 2-6 against the pointspread in their last 8 games. They were fortunate to escape from Laramie with a 2-point non-covering win on Saturday night.   There’s probably a pretty good technical strategy that could be developed for fading the surprising media darling once conference play hits.  Lobos are favored by a dozen on a visit to a beat up, bad Air Force team tonight.

2. A lot of people had John Beilein’s Michigan team as a “go with” team before the season, but Vegas and online sportsbooks have the Wolverines listed as a substantial dog at Wisconsin tonight, despite Wisconsin’s loss of Jon Leuer to a broken wrist.  Michigan simply doesn’t play intelligent basketball.  Leading by anywhere from 4 to 6 points, the Wolverines allowed UConn to attempt 8 free throws in the last 44 seconds on Sunday.   Fouling the opposition late is no way to close out a win.  The Wolverine players, including talented guard Manny Harris, aren’t nearly as savvy as their coach.

3. West Virginia is the bottom team on the schedule, but their game against Marshall is actually being played at the neutral site of the Charleston Civic Center.  This is a much bigger game for Marshall (the team with the better offense) than it is for West Virginia (the better defense, by far).  The Thundering Herd had to be rooting for the Mountaineers to knock off Syracuse on Saturday, but WVU couldn’t overcome the Orangemen, and as a result will likely be more focused on this game.   Bob Huggins has historically been a productive coach to bet on when his team is off a loss.  Vegas and online sportsbooks have this game at 11 or so, which seems a point or so short, indicating that there’s been a little motivational credit given to Marshall in the marketplace.

4.  Wake Forest let some questionable officiating lead to a second half Blue Devil avalanche in a 90-70 loss at Duke on Sunday night.    Consecutive road affairs in Durham and Chapel Hill are hardly ideal scheduling, but the Deacons take on a discombobulated bunch of Tar Heels here.  UNC is banged up and playing poorly, seemingly a shell of the team that blew out Michigan State and lost a close one at Kentucky.  North Carolina has dropped 5 of 6 to the pointspread and has played only a single-half of impressive basketball during that stretch, a second half rout of Virginia Tech 11 days ago.  

5. This has nothing to do with Wednesday’s basketball card, but the redoubtable Dick Jerardi of the Philly Daily News, mentioned a few things that he would change about college basketball.  One was: “Dick Vitale will never again be allowed to give his all-Duke team, at least not while Wake Forest is playing Georgia Tech.”

And that’s change we can all believe in.   Good luck on Wednesday’s basketball card.