South Carolina (21-15) –2, o/u 124 vs. Louisville (21-12), 9:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN 2
by Ultimatecapper.com Staff
The South Carolina Gamecocks, the defending National Invitation Tournament champions, have made it back to the NIT final four this season, and take on the Louisville Cardinals in the second of two semi-final matches at Madison Square Garden Tuesday night.
The Gamecocks suffered through a disappointing conference slate this season, going 6-10 to finish fifth in the SEC East Division. But SC has won seven of its last eight games, and covered eight in a row. The Gamecocks made it to the conference tournament title game, where they lost a close one to Florida, which just qualified for the NCAA tournament’s Final Four. SC then beat Western Kentucky, Florida State and Cincinnati to reach the NIT semi-finals.
After a promising start to their season, Louisville also struggled, going 6-10 to finish in a tie for 11th-place in the Big East. The Cardinals then lost their first Big East tournament game to Pittsburgh. Since then L’ville beat Delaware State, Clemson and Southwest Missouri State to get here.
South Carolina is 19-14 against the spread this season, 10-10 ats as favorites but just 11-9 straight up when giving points.
Louisville hasn’t exactly been kind to its financial backers, going 12-17 vs. the number this season. The Cardinals are also only 3-6 ats as underdogs, and have yet to pull an upset this season, going 0-9 straight up when getting points.
South Carolina went 1-2 vs. Big East teams this season, beating Cincinnati last week and falling to Marquette and Pittsburgh. Louisville went 2-3 vs. those three conference rivals.The Cardinals played one SEC team this season, losing to Kentucky by 12 points in December. The Gamecocks lost two out of three to the Wildcats this season.
SC is shooting 46% from the field this season, 35% from 3-point range and 68% from the free-throw line. The Gamecock defense allows opponents to shoot 43% from the floor.Louisville is shooting 43% from the field on the season, 35% from long range and 71% from the line. But the offense has been better in the post-season, hitting at a 50% clip from the floor in three NIT games so far. The Cardinal defense holds opponents to just 40% shooting from the floor this season.
The rebounding averages for the two teams are almost even.
The Sagarin ratings at usatoday.com rank South Carolina 19th at 86.3, Louisville 41st at 82.8. The RPI at NCAAsports.com ranks the Gamecocks #62, the Cardinals #71.
The under is a collective 35-25 in Louisville and South Carolina games this season. The total on this game opened up on linesandodds.com at 127, but dropped to 124 by Tuesday morning.
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The Ultimatecapper Pick: No opinion
