Xavier @ LaSalle – College Basketball

Added on Jan 07, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

College football season will conclude tonight with Texas and Alabama playing for the BCS Championship, and for sports handicappers that means that college basketball betting season is about to get into full swing. For the next couple of months we can enjoy weekends with literally hundreds of college hoop sports betting opportunities, and we’ll be bringing you more handicapping on it as well. We’ll get started tonight with a big Atlantic 10 rivalry game between Xavier and LaSalle.

Xavier at LaSalle
January 7, 4:00 PM Pacific

This is one of the more competitive rivalries in the Atlantic 10 and even though Xavier has dominated the head to head matchups straight up winning 17 of the last 21, LaSalle has usually been competitive against the spread (the Musketeers hold a narrow 5-4 ATS advantage). This looks like a good opportunity for the home team to pick up an outright upset win, as Xavier has looked awful on the road so far this season with an 0-3 SU/2-1 ATS mark in lined away games. The season to date records of the two teams is also very comparable, with Xavier at 8-5 and LaSalle at 7-6.

These two teams last met in Cincinnati on 1/18/09 and though the scoreboard showed a 20 point Xavier victory, there’s a little more to that than meets the eye. Xavier enjoyed a 36-9 free throw disparity, which has been a sore point with the LaSalle coaches and players ever since. Don’t be surprised if LaSalle benefits from a little ‘home team favoritism’ in officiating to make up for that lopsided statistic. Overall, we’re getting a good number of points with the home team in a matchup where the talent level is much more even than the price suggests. Don’t be surprised to see LaSalle get the outright victory here.

Bet LaSalle +5′ over Xavier