Pittsburgh (23-6)
-1, o/u 130
vs. West Virginia (20-9), 9:20 p.m. Eastern, ESPN
by Ultimatecapper.com Staff
The Pittsburgh Panthers and the West Virginia Mountaineers tangle Thursday night at Madison Square Garden in a second-round Big East Conference tournament match-up.
West Virginia is the three seed in the Big East Conference tournament, and had yesterday off.
Pittsburgh is the six seed, and beat Louisville yesterday 61-56. Pitt led 33-5 at one point in the first half and 47-22 with 13 minutes to go in the game, but managed to let the Cardinals get to within three points in the waning seconds before covering, barely, the four-point spread. The Panthers aided the Louisville rally by hitting just eight of 14 free-throw attempts down the stretch. The game easily stayed under the posted total of 133.
West Virginia is 12-13 against the spread this season, 8-6 ats in the Big East.
Pitt is 13-9 against the spread on the season, 9-7 ats vs. Big East opponents.
The Mountaineers lost four of their final six regular-season games. Their last time out West Virginia fell at Cincinnati 78-75 as three-point road underdogs, despite shooting 29 of 57 from the floor. The problem was they allowed the Bearcats to shoot 29 of 54.
The Panthers lost three of their last four regular-season games.
On the season, Pitt is holding opponents to just 40 percent shooting from the field. On the other end, West Virginia allows its opponents to shoot 46 percent from the floor.
The teams split two games this season, both teams winning on their home courts. Pitt beat the Mountaineers 57-53 a month ago, and West Virginia beat the Panthers 67-62 two weeks ago. The one common element in both games was Pitt's rebounding advantage; in the first game the Panthers won the battle on the boards 33-22; in the second game, 39-21.
On the season, Pitt outrebounds opponents by more than eight a game, while the Mountaineers are being outboarded by 10 per game.
USA Today's Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings have Pitt at #13 with a 87.0, West Virginia at #24 at 84.8. In the most recent RPI at NCAAsports.com, the Panthers are ranked 15th, the Mountaineers 26th.
The over is a somewhat surprising 14-9 in Pitt games this season. But the under is 11-14 in West Virginia games.
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The Ultimatecapper Pick: Our lean is to Pittsburgh here. Earlier in the season West Virginia would have been the play, but their recent team chemistry has been horrible not to mention their rebounding is non-existent.
