Will Rogers Handicapping Review & Free Picks Page

St Louis has been a sharp 7-2 in January, but Binnington has been in the net for both of losses. He seems to have lost his luster this year, and had not played regularly in January. In the Flames net, Markstrom has had his moments, but has been off more often than on lately. Wins have been rare for the Flames in January with both offense and defense struggling. Not so the Blues, but they are on the wrong side of a back to back. The total is average today, and doesn’t accurately reflect the performance of the net-minders at this moment. Expect some goal production from both teams and take the over.

Playing against a bad team that’s coming off a rare win always seems to be a good idea and that’s what I’m doing here with Idaho. The Vandals won 73-72 on Saturday, beating Sacramento State. It was their first win since before Christmas when they beat a team named “SAGU American Indian College.” 

Idaho needed overtime to get that win Saturday. They gave up 42 points in the second half, which was the most points scored by Sacramento State in any half this season. 

The win was at home. On the road, Idaho is 0-9. They’ve lost 30 of 33 road games the last three years.

Portland State’s only win since Christmas also came against Sacramento State. But that was back on 1/15. Since then, the Vikings have lost three in a row. They know tonight is their best chance at a win in some time.

This will also be PSU’s third straight home game. Next they’ve got Southern Utah, who is one of the better Big Sky teams. The fact the Vikings keep visiting teams to 62 points/game (on 38% shooting) tells me they can win this one rather comfortably, so lay the points.

Miss Valley State is as bad as any College Basketball team in the country. They have just one win this season and it came by two points, in overtime, against a Prairie View A&M squad that also happens to be rated among the nation’s very worst. Since that lone win, the Delta Devils have been blown out by Texas Southern and been rather competitive in three other defeats. Tonight’s game is likely to go poorly for them.

Southern U is coming off a 48-point win on Saturday where they almost scored 100 points (99). They shot 56.5% and held Ark-Pine Bluff to 31.4%. The win was the Jaguars’ seventh in the last nine games. The two losses both came on the road and one was at Dayton.

Southern has only played five games at home this season. They’re 5-0 and winning by almost 30 points/game. I look for a win of a similar margin here tonight. The last two times they faced MVSU, the game was at home and the margins of victory were 33 and 41 points.

On the road, MVSU is getting beat by 28.5 points/game. 

Not only is Southern 12-4 ATS in all of its lined games this season, they are 16-4 ATS in their last 20 home games. Should be an easy one for them on Monday, so be sure to lay the points.

The Knicks are playing the second game of a back to back after defeating the Clippers 110-102 at home yesterday. That was a fairly “high scoring” result by their standard. Going back to Christmas, New York has held nine different opponents below 100 points. At the same time, there have been six occasions where they failed to crack the century mark themselves. 

Cleveland is coming off a really low scoring win. They defeated Oklahoma City 94-87 on Saturday, holding the Thunder’s starting frontcourt to 5 of 25 shooting. It was the sixth win the last seven games for the surprising Cavaliers.

This promises to be a low-scoring affair as well. These are two of the top five scoring defenses in the NBA right now. The Cavs are allowing just 101.5 points/game at home. The Knicks are allowing just 103.3 points/game on the road.

The Knicks typically don’t shoot the ball very well. Their FG% for the year is only 43.6 and they’ve been below that three of the previous four games, including yesterday. 

The Under is 14-7 in Cavs’ home games. In addition to possibly being without PG Rajon Rondo (questionable), who has missed the last six games, the team will definitely be without Lauri Markkanen as he sprained his ankle in Saturday’s win. Look for this game to stay UNDER.