Matt Fargo’s Creighton at Arkansas Little Rock Basketball Picks
November 25, 2008
Matt Fargo brings you the best in NCAA basketball picks each and every week. Today we are taking a look at his play on the game between the Creighton Bluejays and the Arkansas Little Rock Trojans. The college basketball lines have installed Creighton as a 3.5 point favorite. We hope you’ll check our site often for the best free basketball picks in the business. Now here’s the play from Matt Fargo.
This is a battle of 3-0 teams and Creighton is getting the nod as the road favorite. That is overly aggressive especially considering this is the Bluejays first road game of the season. They are likely going to be the class of the MVC and while that normally is a big attribute, this year the conference is going to be somewhat down as a lot was lost from last season from many different teams. That includes Creighton as well who is a very young team which is not good for the road in college basketball.
While Creighton is the class of the MVC, Arkansas-Little Rock is the class of the Sun Belt Conference. The Trojans won 20 games last season and they welcome back all five starters from that team. No one player averaged double figures which makes the 20 victories even more impressive but so far this season, four players are averaging at least 12.7 ppg. Guard Steven Moore, the returning leading scorer, missed the first two games but came back last time out and poured in 14 points.
Creighton is known for smart basketball and solid free throw shooting and that is the case again this season. On the other side, the Trojans struggled from the line in their first two games but managed to hit 81.3 percent last time out which also happened to be their first home game of the season. They went 13-3 at home last season so this is a solid home court edge. Arkansas-Little rock will be out for some payback following last season’s 19-point loss in Nebraska.
Defensively, the Trojans are tough as they are allowing only 37.7 percent shooting from the floor and 58 ppg. They fall into a great situation based on that defense. Play on teams after allowing 30 points or less in the first half in two straight games, with all five starters returning from last year in the first five games of the season. This situation is 42-18 ATS (70 percent) over the last five seasons with the average point differential being +9.8 ppg. I believe the wrong team is favored and we will gladly take the home points. 5* Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans