Return to Previous Week Page

December 7 Sheet

Boston College at UMass (-1.5) - 9:00am Pacific
Minutemen head into this game with a must-win mentality. Most preseason publications picked UMass to finish third in the A-10 east division this year. Just behind St Joseph's and ahead of St Bonnie. They opened the season in Maui losing by 13 to Indiana, and I thought they played well. They followed it up with another loss to Utah before salvaging a win over tournament host Chaminade. Not the end of the world right? However, they then returned to the mainland and pitifully lost 46-45 to Central Connecticut State. Now, this was a road game, and CCSU did make the NCAA tournament last year, but it was still a bad loss. UMass led by double digits most of the game and just collapsed late. Granted, UMass was not the only team to play poorly in their first game back from Hawaii, but fans and media are still in an uproar, calling the loss one of the worst in school history.

UMass is led by three returning starters: 6-11 senior center Micah Brand (8.5ppg, 5.2rpg), junior guard Anthony Anderson (8.5ppg, 4.0rpg, 4.2apg, 2.0spg), and junior forward Raheim Lamb (7.8ppg, 4.8rpg). The starting five is completed by senior forward Jackie Rogers (former Syracuse transfer, redshirted last year with injury, 12.5ppg, 5.5rpg) and junior guard Marcus Cox (UConn transfer, rated #4 biggest impact transfer by Dick Vitale, 7.0ppg, 3.5rpg). Touted freshman guard Michael Lasme (Preseason A-10 rookie team) is averaging 8.0ppg off the bench. Minutemen have 6 players averaging 7 points per game or better and 9 players averaging double digits in minutes. This is a deep team with competition at each position and clearly more talented from one to nine than last years version.

BC finished last season losing 11 of their final 19 games, and are a very shaky 2-2 to start this season. Their season started with a 27 point blowout loss at home to St Joseph's. They lost their only road game at Holy Cross by a point and needed OT to beat St Bonnie in their last game. They finished last season last in the Big East in rebounding and are dead even in rebounding margin through four games. They suffered a huge blow late in the game at Holy Cross losing their best inside player Uka Ugbai for perhaps the season with a neck injury. Ugbai, a senior, averaged 33 minutes per game, 14 points, 6 rebounds, and almost 2 blocked shots. He will be missed badly. The Eagles primary weakness already was depth. Trying to replace Agbai is 7-0 sophomore Nate Doornekamp (18.5 minutes per game, 0.5 points per game) who is not much of a scoring threat and does not have the mobility or stamina to keep up with BC's talented guards. He is also very foul prone. Head coach Al Skinner has nothing else in terms of size off the bench and the Eagles are now down to a 7 man rotation. They already start two freshman and guards Bell & Sidney each played the full 45 possible minutes in last overtime game.

Last year at BC, UMass came back from a huge deficit to lose by just 2 points. Depth will definitely be a factor in this game. UMass is a relatively young team relying on four key contributors who did not play last year. Therefore, I expect them to show great improvement in their first home game of the season. They could very easily look like a different team today. They have had 5 days off to digest one point loss at CCSU and will pull out all stops for a win over instate rival in front of national television audience. Minutemen get a big W.

UMass  1 UNIT

Return to Previous Week Page

Live Chat & Posting Forum for Sports Bettors: BettingChat.com - BettingTalk.com

COLLEGE SPORTS BETTING INFORMATION NETWORK
INFOWINS.COM

DO YOU HAVE INFORMATION TO SHARE ON YOUR FAVORITE COLLEGE TEAM?

Apply to become a contributor at INFOWIN$ and get the most valuable, comprehensive, and timely college sports handicapping information available anywhere!  Click here to visit.