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NCAA Basketball Pick – December 27th

After a few light days in college basketball betting action, we’ve got a great game to sink our teeth into on Thursday night, when the Cincinnati Bearcats play host to the New Mexico Lobos.

The Lobos are looking for a massive upset in this one, one that would give the Mountain West just a remarkable triumph. A loss to the San Diego Toreros was the first of the season for New Mexico, and that was a shocking upset, especially in The Pit. Missing out on F Drew Gordon is hurting the Lobos, but this is still a veteran squad that has the ability to do just about everything. G Kendall Williams is leading the team in scoring at 14.8 points per game, but G Tony Snell and C Alex Kirk both have the ability to go off for big time games as well. Kirk is really the new version of Gordon, as he is averaging 10.9 points, 7.5 boards, and 1.2 blocks per game. Head Coach Steve Alford and the gang allowing just 12.0 turnovers per game, one of the best marks in the entire nation, especially for a team that can turn you over on the other end of the court as well.

The Bearcats have been blowing right through teams this year, and they are one of the few teams that are left in the land that are without a loss. They are off to a 12-0 start for just the eighth time in team history, and they are outscoring teams by 22.1 points per game. Clubs are shooting just 34.6 percent from the field against UC this year, and a lot of that is thanks to the fact that C Cheikh Mbodj is averaging 2.5 blocks per game. The problem that Cincinnati has is that it just cannot shoot free throws. That’s going to come back to bite the team in the backside at some point, as 61.4 percent doesn’t cut it. That being said, with F Sean Kilpatrick flexing his veteran muscles and averaging 19.2 points per game, a lot of problems like free throws can tend to be hidden, especially early in the season. Still, this is the toughest game to date for the Bearcats, and they are fortunate just to be playing this one at home as opposed to in The Pit.

Prediction:

The question is whether the Lobos got caught napping or whether they were exposed by the Toreros. We tend to think that it was more of an anomaly than anything else. The Bearcats have bloated numbers thanks to the fact that they haven’t really beaten a great team this year, and they might ultimately end up losing this game outright. New Mexico 72 – Cincinnati 69