South Florida Bulls at Pittsburgh Panthers, Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 7:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN3
Opening Line: Pitt -18.5
Current Line: Pitt -17.5
Opening Total: 129
Current Total: 127
Money Line: Pitt -2500 / South Florida +1400
The fourth-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers (23-2, 11-1 Big East) could actually be getting stronger without leading scorer Ashton Gibbs. That is a scary thought for the South Florida Bulls (8-18, 2-11) as they visit Pittsburgh (-17.5) on Wednesday with a winless record of 0-10 on the road so far this season.
The Panthers do miss the 3-point shooting of Gibbs, who is out with a sprained MCL and averages 16.3 points per game. They have made only 2 of 16 shots from beyond the 3-point arc in two games without him but have still found a way to pull off a pair of impressive road wins at West Virginia and Villanova. Brad Wanamaker stepped up in a 57-54 road victory against the Wildcats on Saturday, scoring a game-high 21 points on 8 of 15 shooting.
Pitt has covered the spread in the last three games of the team’s current four-game winning streak, which followed a disappointing 56-51 home loss to Notre Dame. Opponents have not totaled more than 66 points against the Panthers in their past nine games, and South Florida does not figure to challenge them offensively as the lowest scoring team in the Big East.
The Bulls are averaging just 62 points per game this season following a 78-55 home loss to the Fighting Irish on Saturday. They fell behind 24-3 and never recovered, shooting a season-low 30.4 percent en route to their fourth consecutive loss. To make matters worse, leading scorer Augustus Gilchrist is averaging just 7.4 points on 24.5 percent shooting in the last five games after scoring three points on 1 for 10 shooting against Notre Dame. South Florida has seen the total go UNDER in five of its last six games with a 4-2 mark against the spread during that stretch.
Despite the team’s outstanding defense lately – limiting the opposition to an average of 57.8 points in the last six games – Pittsburgh has seen two of its past three games go OVER the total, scoring 71 points twice in a row before beating Villanova. The previous three games for the Panthers all went UNDER the total, something that has surprisingly not happened in the past three meetings with the Bulls.
In fact, South Florida has covered the last two meetings with Pitt, including a 70-61 victory at home last season. However, Dominique Jones scored a game-high 37 points in that game and is currently recovering from foot surgery with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
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