College Basketball Betting Preview: A Look at Utah St-BYU

Utah St Aggies at Brigham Young Cougars, Marriott Center, Provo, UT
Wednesday, November 17, 2010, 9:00 pm Eastern, TV: The Mountain
Opening Line: BYU -6 1/2
Current Line: BYU -6
Opening Total: 143 1/2
Current Total: 142 1/2
Money Line: BYU -290 / Utah St +240

Jimmer Fredette and the BYU Cougars are a 7 1/2 point favorite at home against in-state rival Utah St

These two long-time Beehive State foes renew their annual rivalry tonight in Provo. Last year BYU lost their first game of the season to Utah St in Logan. Both of these teams are among the favorites in their respective conferences and hope to play deep into March. Both are 1-0 to start the season with convincing wins. Utah St beat Weber St 77-65 on Saturday and BYU beat Fresno St 83-56 on Friday. BYU is 19-10 ATS as a favorite over the last two seasons. BYU is 23-9 as a home favorite of 6 1/2 to 9 points since 1997. The last two meetings in this series have gone under the total and Utah St is 2-0 ATS in those games.

Stew Morrill has taken the Utah St Aggies to post season play for 11 straight years. With four starters returning from last year’s team this year should continue that streak. Small forward Tai Wesley, power forward Nate Bendall, guard Brian Green, and swingman Pooh Williams all return for the Aggies. other key contributors for the Aggies will be junior college transfer Brockeith Pane who takes over at the point, junior forward Brady Jardine, and sophomore guard Preston Medlin. Utah St struggled in the first half against in-state rival Weber St and wer actually down 7 points at halftime before rallying for the 12 point win. The Aggies only shot 45% from the field including a dreadful 1-12 from 3 point range. Wesley and Pane were the only ones with their shooting stroke going. Wesley scored 19 points and added 9 rebounds. Pane scored 23 points and also had 4 assists. Green added 10 points off the bench. The Aggies turned the ball over 10 times. Utah St will have to play much better against a tough BYU team.

The #23 ranked BYU Cougars are led by pre-season All-American Jimmer Fredette. Fredette scored 24 points and added 8 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals in the Cougars rout of Fresno St to start the season. Last year Fredette averaged 22 points a game despite contracting mononucleosis halfway through the season. The illness weakened him but now Fredette is healthy. He worked out for some NBA scouts and was projected to be a first round pick but he chose to come back for senior season. He said the NBA scouts helped him to be a better player and coach Dave Rose agrees. But the Cougars are far from a one man team. They do have to replace two starters and their sixth man, but the Cougars still have tons of talent returning. Jackson Emery is BYU’s second leading scorer and makes a great backcourt mate for Fredette. Emery only averaged 13 points a game last year but with such an explosive scorer like Fredette he doesn’t have to score much. Against Fresno BYU only had 3 players scoring in double digits. Swingman Charles Abouo added 13 points and forward Noah Hartsock added 21 off the bench on 9-15 shooting. Abouo was the teams leading rebounder with 6, and Hartsock added 5 boards as well.

Neither of these teams are very big but they both are very quick. Utah St doesn’t have a player over 6’9″ and BYU doesn’t have a player over 6’10”. Utah St must contain Fredette if that is possible. Sometimes it is just easier to accept that a great scorer like Fredette will get his and jsut try to stop the other team members from scoring. BYU does tend to rely on three point shooting too much. if the shots are falling, BYU is almost impossible to beat, but can be had if they launch too many bricks. BYu is very tough to beat at home. Since 1997 they are 98-64 ATS in the cozy confines of the Marriott Center.