PiRate Ratings College Basketball For February 20, 2020

Thursday’s Games

 

Home	Visitor	Spread
Albany	UMBC	5.4
Appalachian St.	South Alabama	4.0
Arizona	Oregon St.	12.8
Arizona St.	Oregon	-0.6
Binghamton	UMass Lowell	-2.6
BYU	Santa Clara	16.4
Cal Poly	UC Davis	-2.7
Cal St. Fullerton	UC Santa Barbara	-2.9
Charleston Southern	Campbell	0.9
Cleveland St.	Northern Kentucky	-6.7
Coastal Carolina	Troy	7.9
Colorado	USC	8.6
Delaware	Northeastern	-0.3
Denver	Oral Roberts	-8.2
Drexel	Hofstra	-4.4
Eastern Illinois	Murray St.	-4.6
Eastern Kentucky	Tennessee St.	-0.4
Eastern Washington	Sacramento St.	7.0
Gonzaga	San Francisco	18.1
Hampton	Gardner-Webb	-4.5
High Point	Presbyterian	0.5
Idaho	Northern Arizona	-2.2
Indiana St.	Northern Iowa	-3.3
Iowa	Ohio St.	1.6
Jacksonville	Lipscomb	4.0
Jacksonville St.	Southeast Missouri	9.8
James Madison	Elon	3.1
Liberty	North Florida	9.6
Morehead St.	Belmont	-11.9
Nebraska	Michigan St.	-10.9
New Hampshire	Hartford	3.4
NJIT	Stetson	2.7
North Alabama	Kennesaw St.	14.7
Northern Colorado	Southern Utah	7.2
Portland	Pepperdine	-5.3
Portland St.	Montana St.	3.7
Purdue Fort Wayne	Omaha	-0.5
Radford	UNC Asheville	11.3
Saint Mary’s	Loyola Marymount	16.1
Seattle	Grand Canyon	4.1
SIU-Edwardsville	Austin Peay	-9.9
South Carolina Upstate	Longwood	1.5
Southern Illinois	Evansville	9.4
Stony Brook	Vermont	-3.7
Temple	Connecticut	0.2
Tennessee Tech	UT Martin	0.7
Texas St.	Georgia Southern	6.1
Towson	William & Mary	5.2
UC Riverside	Hawaii	2.0
UT Arlington	Georgia St.	1.8
Utah	UCLA	2.3
Utah Valley	Cal St. Bakersfield	1.7
Washington	Stanford	2.7
Wichita St.	South Florida	11.1
Youngstown St.	Wright St.	-5.8

 

Thursday’s Key Games

Maybe the best top games of the week

 

Time (EST)	Network	Home	Visitor
7:00 PM	ESPN	Iowa	Ohio St.
7:00 PM	ESPN+	Liberty	North Florida
7:00 PM	ESPNU	Stony Brook	Vermont
8:00 PM	ESPN+	Texas St.	Georgia Southern
9:00 PM	ESPN	Arizona St.	Oregon
9:00 PM	ESPN2	Colorado	USC

 

The Big Three Mid-Major Conference Games on TV Tonight

Liberty vs. North Florida–The winner most likely will end up with the number one seed in the Atlantic Sun Conference.  North Florida won the first contest 71-70 in a tight game that stayed close for 40 minutes.  At the time, Liberty was 19-1 and on the cusp of becoming ranked in the top 25.

North Florida’s starting lineup all average double figure points per game.  The Ospreys are by far the best shooting team in the A-Sun, both inside and outside the 3-point line and at the foul line.

Liberty has the best defense in the A-Sun, and the Flames go seven deep with little drop in talent.  With the A-Sun Tournament played on the home courts of the higher seeds, and with these two teams being the two powers of the league, the NCAA Tournament bid will be decided when these two probably play for a third time.  Home court advantage will probably decide it.  Liberty has the edge tonight, which should give the Flames the edge when they play again in a couple weeks.

 

Stony Brook vs. Vermont–Vermont has a 2 1/2 game lead over second place Stony Brook, so this is a must win for Stony Brook as far as the regular season conference race goes.  The conference tournament is played on the home courts of the higher seeds, so getting the #1 seed means home court advantage all the way to the Championship.

These are the top two programs in the league.  Vermont has won 14 of their last 15 games, and they have a conference scoring margin of +15.8 points per game.  The Catamounts dominate every important analytic statistic in the America East Conference.  

On paper, Stony Brook doesn’t have the resume of a team that looks capable of beating Vermont.  The Seawolves barely hold control of the number two spot in the league, but they have done something no other A-East team has done–they beat Vermont, and they did it in Burlington no less.

 

Texas St. vs. Georgia Southern–These two teams are still in contention for the regular season Sun Belt Conference Championship, as they are tied for third with 10-6 SBC records, just two games behind league leader Little Rock and one game behind second place Georgia St.  

Texas St. has one of the top players in the league in senior guard Nijel Pearson.  Pearson combines excellent long range shooting with the ability to get inside and score on the offensive side and fight for rebounds on the defensive end.  Earlier this season, he almost single-handily kept Texas St. in the game at Baylor, and the Bobcats scared the top-ranked team in Waco before finally losing by nine points.

Georgia Southern has a small but quick lineup, and the Eagles are fun to watch play.  This could be the most exciting game of the night.