Line Drills: Odds for February 2nd MAC Hoops

I don't have a good answer for what happened on Saturday. Obviously is was fast and furious Mid-American Conference basketball at it's best, and while it was tremendously exciting to watch, it was maddening for the bettor. We ended up on the wrong side of all five games on Saturday. Luckily Tom and I will be picking every single game this year, so we'll either rebound or go down in a blaze of glory. We've got Buffalo and Bowling Green up on Sunday, and supposedly there's a football game being played later in the day. Who do we have in the Seattle/Denver game? Who cares? You shouldn't, you're not a Seahawks or Broncos fan. But we're all MAC fans and isn't that the pinnacle for the sports enthusiast? I like to think so. Your February 2nd MAC Hoops pick:

Buffalo(+2.5) at Bowling Green

So initially my gut is to go with the Bulls here. Buffalo has won two in a row, most recently 84-63 against Western Michigan on Wednesday. Hard to ignore the clunker they put up against Ball State though, falling 71-68 on January 23rd, the Cardinals lone conference win to date. Buffalo is an impressive 5-2 in conference play, and with a win will keep pace with Akron and Ohio for front runner rights in the MAC East. Check these numbers out. The last three games Javon McCrea is averaging over 22 points a game and shooting a blistering 64 percent from the field. Now I'll concede, I'm unsure if the previous sentence meets the rigid AP criteria of reporting basketball statistics for the use of Mid-American Conference betting, but I'm confident that you can read between the lines. McCrea is playing at a high level. So if Buffalo is going to leave Bowling Green with a win feed McCrea early and often. Do not feed Joshua Freelove. The senior guard is 2-14 from behind the arc the last three games. If Bowling Green is going to win, it's going to be with defense. The Falcons have the second ranked D in the league, giving up just over 63 points a game. BGSU finds themselves in a little bit of a slump, losers of two in a row to Eastern Michigan and Miami. This came immediately after impressive back to back wins on the road against Ohio and Western Michigan. If the Falcons are going to keep up with the Buffalo offense they're going to need help outside of Richaun Holmes. Jehvon Clarke rained in four threes on the way to 22 points on January 25th. Anthony Henderson torched Western Michigan for 27 points on January 19th, and Spencer Parker scored 20 on January 15th versus CMU. So the help is there, and with an explosive offensive output from one of these three, and the Falcons holding the Bulls under 70, they could knock off Buffalo. Clearly Vegas likes the Falcons. I like the Bulls. On a certain level isn't 0-6 just as eye popping as 6-0? On Sunday take the Bulls and the 2.5.