Several of the squads on Bracket Buster weekend will be in the NCAA tournament or at least be playing post-season basketball somewhere and to have a working knowledge of them and their style of play and talent is invaluable. On Friday, fans will get a cha

2010-02-19

Several of the squads on Bracket Buster weekend will be in the NCAA tournament or at least be playing post-season basketball somewhere and to have a working knowledge of them and their style of play and talent is invaluable. On Friday, fans will get a chance to see Old Dominion and Northern Iowa. Playing at home, oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com have established the Panthers as 3-1/2-point favorites. Read on for a look at this game plus some key Bracket Buster Historical Trends.

Among the nuggets uncovered for Bracket Buster contests are road teams win only 38 percent, yet cover 56.4 percent of the time (149-115-9 ATS). Be sure to sift thru the complete board of games since teams catching 10 or more points are on a 23-11 ATS surge.

Bracket Buster starts on Friday, with a delectable Colonial vs. Missouri Valley matchup. Old Dominion (21-7, 9-14-1 ATS) is 8-4 and 2-6 ATS in non-conference action and is one of the better defensive teams in the land, allowing 55.8 points a game. Kent Bazemore has taken over running the Monarchs at guard and his concern for ball security and defensive mindset has ODU living up to preseason expectations in the CAA. This should be a low scoring half court contest and the Monarchs are 0-6 ATS in road games when they score 60 or less points in a game this season.

Center Jordan Eglseder is the most likely candidate to be the Missouri Valley Player of the Year; however he’s been suspended for three games and will not play in this contest. As witnessed in a recent contest against Southern Illinois, Northern Iowa (23-3, 17-8 ATS) has to have Adam Koch at crunch time. The senior has size at 6’9, making him difficult to defend within 10 feet of the rim as power forward against comparable teams and Koch has a quality array of ways to score either near the bucket or outside. The Panthers have complete control of their conference; nonetheless a win against a similar club, with similar circumstances would be a boost to confidence before the Big Dance.

UNI is 10-3 ATS versus teams outscoring opponents by four or points a game this season. The StatFox Power Line shows Northern Iowa by 4, of course that doesn’t factor in the Eglseder injury.

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