Welcome To The Most Underrated Week Of The Year And Houston's Chance To Dominate The Maui Invitational
Even with the Clemson collapse yesterday still a decent day going 5-3 with Utah State, Boise State and Arizona as outright underdog winners. We'll take it. Fuck Clemson though. Learn how to make one basket down the stretch and learn how to not have 6 guys on the court. Dumbest team in the world. But we move on to the start of the most underrated week of the year. Maui Invitational, Battle 4 Atlantis, all the other tournaments. Sign me the fuck up.
Just a reminder. Sharp Cheese is the way you'll know you're going to read a picks blog for college basketball every single day. We're also going to incorporate it into social media perhaps posting on Instagram and going live on IG/Twitter Spaces. Twitter Spaces will absolutely happen 1-2 times a week, most likely on weekdays after big games. Just come on and talk whatever the hell you want about college basketball. The blog will mostly read the same. Breaking down games and making picks. I'm thinking maybe adding a Q&A part into the blog. Now most of the time I feel the same way about games, that said if there's a game I really love and attacking a few different ways you may see a Sharp Cheddar alert next to it. Sprinkle on the ML? Well, get out the shredded mozz. You get it. That said, always willing to listen to any adjustments you might have.
Let's get into today. Shoot stuff over at barstoolreags on Twitter.
As always - all the lines come from the Barstool Sportsbook. Download the app here.
2021-22 Season Record: 36-36-1
Back to one of my favorite wells, Vermont. Why? Oakland and Greg Kampe are going to run that zone and that's not how you beat Vermont. They just destroy teams with their passing throughout a zone. But more importantly, they have the defense to slow down Oakland. Ben Shungu is one of the best defenders in the country. Vermont as a team is 28th in effective field goal percentage and top-40 in defensive rebounding percentage. They are going to stop Oakland from getting in transition. I trust their defense more than anything here.
Pick: Vermont -3
Johnny Davis is back for Wisconsin and that's huge. But this is a rock fight through and through. Two incredibly slow teams. Wisconsin is one of the worst shooting teams at any level in the country. So what are we going to do here? TAKE THE OVER. It's going to be gross. That's fine. A&M is willing to speed the game up and gamble defensively. That should lead to some easy buckets for Wisconsin and in a game where we're looking at 121 is huge. God this game is going to suck.
Pick: Over 120.5
I just don't like this Butler team. Doesn't help that they are battling some injury concerns and get to play Houston. Spoiler: Houston is still good. Houston is going to get after Butler defensively and there should be plenty of turnovers. There are concerns with how Butler takes care of the ball, currently ranking 296th in the country in turnover percentage. Butler shoots it decent from three, but in a game where they have to keep up with Houston it's not going to be enough.
Pick: Houston -9.5
Alright Siena landed Andrew Platek and finally got him eligible from UNC. That's huge for a team like Clem's Saints. Do I care that Siena is 0-4? Nope. Sure don't. I don't even care that games haven't been that close. Harvard is a unique matchup for them because of tempo and the fact that Harvard isn't great defensively. They are a sub-200 defense. Landing Platek should help Siena there.
Pick: Siena +5
Let's stay in the Ivy League but back one here. Penn State hasn't really done anything yet. They lost to UMass, beat Youngstown State and St. Francis NY. Not exactly ideal. The other thing is they've won right around this 15 point spread. Cornell does have a win over Colgate, which is better than anything Penn State has done. Also Cornell is playing the fastest tempo on offense in the country right now. They just fly around. Think you see them give PSU some fits with their style of play and getting some buckets.
Pick: Cornell +15
Talk about a brutal turn around for Ohio State, after losing to Xavier and now going to play Seton Hall. While I do have concerns about Seton Hall's offense, Ohio State's defense right now isn't exactly shutting people down. They should be able to do enough. More importantly, they have the bodies to throw at EJ Liddell and Ohio State is still without Sueing. That loss was so important to what they want to do. The fact Seton Hall is getting healthy Bryce Aiken right now is one of the biggest stories out there. He can completely change the ceiling of Seton Hall because of what he can do with the ball offensively.
Pick: Seton Hall -1.5
I actually like this Notre Dame team but this is a horrific matchup for them. Saint Mary's does a couple things to just destroy what Notre Dame wants to do. First, they run you off the 3pt line. At the same time, not ideal that Nate Laszewski and Prentiss Hubb are shooting like complete shit from three. At the same time Saint Mary's is going to space Notre Dame out defensively and that's exactly what they want to do. Saint Mary's has the shooters while also being able to play through Dan Fotu.
Pick: Saint Mary's +1
I just don't know how this comes down to anything but Houston vs Oregon. It's a pretty weak field. So while Oregon has Chaminade in the first round, Houston gets the easier second round matchup against Wisconsin/A&M vs Notre Dame/St. Mary's. So for that we'll take the favorite at +200. I like this Houston team a lot. I also think Oregon is going to be way better come March than they are right now.
Pick: Houston +200
I'm personally not putting a bet in this tournament because it's wide open. Baylor has the path but I don't like just the +175 for them. Auburn/UConn would be my pick but they play each other in the first round and good luck figuring out who you take there. I do think the winner of the game can beat Michigan State/Loyola Chicago in the second round.