College Hoops – January 27th, 2015

YTD Record: 1-3

Nebraska (+4) @ Michigan

Michigan has had two impressive showings since they lost their Junior star, Caris LeVert. They were able to edge out Rutgers on the road in a low scoring contest and push sixth-ranked Wisconsin to its limits in an eventual overtime loss, but Michigan is really going to feel LeVert’s absence in this one. With two elite scorers playing some of their best basketball for Nebraska, Michigan will not be able to keep up with the team of backups and walk-ons that they’ve been using since LeVert went down. Terran Petteway and Shavon Shields are two of the best scorers in the Big 10, scoring 19.6 and 16.7 PPG, respectively, and Michigan will have trouble matching up with both of them without LeVert’s perimeter defense. Look for Nebraska to limit the 3-point shots for Michigan and get the ball to their scorers in this one. Petteway and Shields lead Nebraska to an outright victory in Ann Arbor.

Kansas State (-1) vs. West Virginia

There is no hotter player in the Big 12 right now than Kansas State’s Nino Williams. Averaging 20 points and 7 rebounds a game over his last 3 games, the Wildcats have been able to post a 2-1 mark in a very difficult stretch of conference play. Although West Virginia comes into this one ranked 16 in the country, they narrowly escaped a TCU team last time out that has been at the bottom of the Big 12 for the last 3 years. WVU has not played up to their full potential this season, with star guard Juwan Staten missing a few games and being a non-factor in others, and they simply cannot match up with the Kansas State big men. Thomas Gipson and Nino Williams will own the post in this game, and Marcus Foster can always be counted on to take and make big shots,allowing Kansas State to win this game easily, moving them to 6-2 in conference play this season.

Brandon Fine handicaps college basketball and is a writer for The Saturday Edge. You can follow Brandon on Twitter throughout the college basketball season @vegaslinebeater and you can contact him at vegaslinebeater@gmail.com.