College Hoops Picks for 3/7/15

College Hoops Picks for 3/7/15

Record YTD: 19-15

It’s the last Saturday of the regular season, so let’s hope to end on a strong note and carry some momentum into the conference tournaments and the Big Dance. As always, feel free to follow on Twitter @Smithers513 or leave a comment below. Good luck!

Georgia Southern +9 @ Georgia State

The two best teams in the Sun Belt will go at each other Saturday afternoon, and I’m going to take the points here in a game that I expect to come down to the wire. The winner of this game gets the #1 seed in the Sun Belt tournament, so this game means a lot to both schools. In the first meeting between these two in early February, and Georgia Southern won that game by four points at home despite shooting only 28% from the floor and an atrocious 7 of 26 from three. In fact, these two teams were a combined 10 of 42 from deep. Georgia Southern was able to buoy their poor shooting effort by crashing the offensive boards, getting 15 offensive rebounds and getting to the charity stripe 29 times. I’ve written how at times I don’t know how committed Georgia State is to guarding the ball and just making general effort plays defensively, which is evidenced by their 21 fouls committed in that game and getting beaten on the boards. If Georgia Southern can force Georgia State into contested jump shots and not get burned from deep, I see this as a game that is going to come down to the last few possessions and I’ll gladly put the 9 points in my pocket.

Kansas @ Oklahoma -4

I had Oklahoma circled as a spot I wanted to play and with the current number being offered, I see too many angles here that I like to not pull the trigger on the Sooners. First, let’s start with the fact that this game is meaningless for Kansas. The Jayhawks have locked up the Big 12 title and #1 seed in the tournament with their comeback OT win over West Virginia on Tuesday. Add in the fact that they will be without their most reliable player in leading scorer and rebounder Perry Ellis, and I don’t see Kansas coming into this game against Oklahoma with a lot of pep in their step. Meanwhile, Oklahoma is looking to avenge a 7 point loss in Lawrence earlier in the year, in a game that their star Buddy Hield went wild for 26 points. In that first game, Cliff Alexander, who is doubtful for Saturday’s contest, was the leading scorer for the Jayhawks putting up 13 points along with 13 boards. Kansas made 10 three’s that game, and when the Jayhawks can knock those down, they can be deadly. But I’m not banking on them sustaining in Norman Saturday. When you’re a team that carriers as much prestige as Kansas, any time you go on the road, especially on Senior Day, you’re going to get the other teams’ absolute best shot. When you couple that with the lack of motivation and depleted roster, I like the Sooners to get a comfortable win on Saturday.

Pittsburgh @ Florida State -1

At this point I’m looking for reasons to fade Pittsburgh, and the Seminoles present a perfect opportunity in order to do so. To start, we get motivation with Florida State in that they lost to the Panthers the first go-round, and with a win and a little help they could push themselves into avoiding an extra game in the ACC tournament, with Clemson likely losing to Notre Dame. There is a lot of tiebreaker scenarios we could get into, but the bottom line is FSU has a good chance to enhance their seeding position and get a win on Senior Day. I think FSU’s interior size and length can be an issue for Pittsburgh, and at the reduced price to essentially win the game at home, I’ll back the Seminoles against a downward trending Pitt team.