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NCAA Basketball Pick – March 12th

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the only team that has to feel like it has a shot playing in the first day of the Big East Tournament to make a little bit of noise. They’ll try to beat the NCAA basketball betting odds against the DePaul Blue Demons on Tuesday night in the second game at Madison Square Garden.

DePaul has consistently been one of the worst teams in the Big East for years, and that probably isn’t changing any time in the near future. The Blue Demons haven’t won a game since February 16th, and they really haven’t shown a heck of a lot of spunk in that stretch either. In fact, the team has averaged getting outscored by 17.2 points per game in its last six, each of which have been losses both from an SU and an ATS perspective. The offense has only reached 70 points once in that stretch, and the defense has allowed at least 78 points to all six foes. DePaul loves to run up and down the court, but it just doesn’t have the horses to be able to do it against some of the best in the Big East. If they are going to hang around in this game, the Blue Demons are going to have to get great contributions from veterans G Brandon Young and F Cleveland Melvin. These two men are averaging 16.8 and 16.3 points per game respectively, and they are clearly the heart and soul of this team.

The Scarlet Knights are hoping to get a call from the NIT, though it is going to take two wins in this tournament at minimum for that to happen. This has been a stingy team for a good chunk of the season, and a 9-4 ATS record in neutral site and road games shows just that. In fact, Rutgers comes to MSG with three straight covers in tote, including an outright upset of the Seton Hall Pirates from this past Friday. Rutgers does have some wins against some respectable teams this year, beating clubs like Princeton, Iona, Pittsburgh, and St. John’s, but you have to go back to January 9th to find the last win against a team that has any chance of playing in the postseason. G Eli Carter suffered a leg injury five games ago that cost him the rest of the season, and that really is going to hurt Rutgers’ chances of advancing far here in the Big Apple. G Myles Mack is now the only man on the team that is averaging more than 6.9 points per game, and he is going to need to carry the load on Tuesday and beyond should the Scarlet Knights get that far.

Prediction:

DePaul was the worst team in the Big East this year, and it is going to be a sizeable underdog as a result. That being said, without Carter, the magic can only go on for so long for Rutgers. We do think that Mack is going to will the Scarlet Knights to victory, but it isn’t going to be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination. We like the Blue Demons and the points in their final game of the year. Rutgers 68 – DePaul 66