Ala Hann Sport picks

The beginning of January brings the close of the cupcake season for college basketball betting lines and the beginning of inter-conference play. It is during the start of January, that sharp handicappers, begin to place their wagers, as we find out which teams are actually good and which were the beneficiaries of the first half of their schedules. Today we’ll look at the best teams entering inter-conference month and which teams provide the best value for tonight’s NCAAB price per head action.

Depending on which site you use, you will either see the Syracuse Orange on top and Kentucky Wildcats in second overall, or vice versa. For all intents and purposes, Kentucky is the top seed despite a lower win loss record then Syracuse. The reason for Kentucky’s surge to the top is two fold, as they have the best roster in the country, and they recently destroyed the Louisville Cardinals, to jump ahead in the standings. However, with that in mind, it is important that bookie software agents, do not completely bank on Kentucky, while writing off Syracuse.

From a betting stand point, the Orange provide better value then the Wildcats, as the Orange are 10 – four – one against the spread, while the Wildcats are a miserable three – nine and one overall against the spread, but zero – eight – one in their last nine. Both Kentucky and Syracuse should remain one and two in the AP polls over the next couple weeks, as they face the cellar dwellers of their respective conference.

Looking ahead to tonight’s college basketball games, fans should keep an eye on the sixth ranked Missouri Tigers. Although they have an outstanding overall ranking, the Tigers similar to the Louisville Cardinals, are a bit overrated. In essence, the Tigers are undefeated through 13 games, but actually are five and three against the spread. Last game against Old Dominion, the Tigers big stars struggled against a stingy Old Dominion defense.

Tonight when they face the Oklahoma Sooners, if the Tigers struggle early, they could be looking at their first loss of the season. Oklahoma was projected to be at the bottom of the Big 12 this year, but has shocked many NBA handicapping sites, with their early success, only losing two of their first 15 contests. We believe that the Sooners will pull out their 14^th win tonight against the Tigers.

The 11^th ranked Michigan State Spartans will be looking to build off the momentum of their football contemporaries, as they travel to Wisconsin, to take on the 19^th ranked Badgers tonight. Michigan State kicked off the Big 10 league play last week, by destroying both Indiana and Nebraska. Meanwhile, the Badgers will be looking to rebound after an underwhelming performance against Iowa last week. With the Spartans playing on a whole different level than Wisconsin, we feel the Spartans will win this game as handily as they did against Indiana and Nebraska.