Having survived one of the toughest schedules in the country unbeaten up until this past Monday night, the formerly top-ranked Texas Longhorns welcome another difficult test on Saturday afternoon when they travel to take on Connecticut. For the Huskies, i

2010-01-22

Having survived one of the toughest schedules in the country unbeaten up until this past Monday night, the formerly top-ranked Texas Longhorns welcome another difficult test on Saturday afternoon when they travel to take on Connecticut. For the Huskies, it’s been a somewhat disappointing season thus far, but make no mistake, they are capable of pulling the upset here. A full 40-minute effort will be required though. See if your fellow bettors give UCon any shot at scoring a key resume building win on the Sportsbook.com BETTING TRENDS page.

No one can claim this talent-laden Texas (17-1, 8-6 ATS) team has taken the easy way out scheduling wise this season. Besides playing in the arduous Big 12, the Longhorns have gone out of their way to take on some the best schools from the top conferences and will again here in Connecticut. The Texas roster is a puzzle for opposing coaches to figure out. Focus on Damion James and Dexter Pittman and Avery Bradley or Gary Johnson can carve an opponent up. The other aspect that shines thru, the Horns players seem to genuinely enjoying playing with one another and share the glory. That showed in particular in non-conference play, where Texas is 14-0 and 8-2 ATS this campaign.

Evidently Big East play isn’t challenging enough for Connecticut (12-6, 6-9-1 ATS), as they found the need to schedule a team that is one of the finest in the country to break up the conference rigors. All kidding aside, coach Jim Calhoun (now on medical leave) has played encounters like this the last several years as a refocusing distraction, to test the mental awareness of his players with February & March not far away. For the most part, the Huskies have played about as expected; nonetheless having Ater Majok and Charles Okwandu elevate their play would improve UConn considerably. Connecticut is 16-8 ATS in January games since 2007.

Texas comes to Connecticut off its first loss of the season and hasn’t played well this month, with a 0-5 spread record and barely beating Texas A&M Corpus Christi, 76-70. The Longhorns are 1-9-1 against clubs with a winning home record. The Huskies are 9-3 in non-conference action, however own a sordid 2-8 ATS record in those games.

The StatFox Power Line shows a Pick em’, perhaps indicating that a tight contest is in the cards.

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