Predictions for Feb 6th

Games of the day

North Carolina State at Georgia Tech
N.C. State is on fire after Atsur's return with a blowout win at Virginia Tech and close victory over UNC in the past week. If they could pick up another big road win, it'll slide them into the bubble talk while Georgia Tech would be dead in the water for now. But even with Atsur back, they still really only go 7 deep and that's being nice. Tech has guarded the perimeter fairly well over the past month which is always key against the 'Pack but their big men have been getting into big time foul trouble. We'll see if N.C. State can exploit that and if Crittenton can contain Atsur ( and actually score himself considering how hit or miss he's been in ACC play ). I say N.C. State goes to the free throw line 20+ times and whoever Dickey ends up guarding along the wing goes off in a really close game.

North Carolina State 74 Georgia Tech 72

Virginia at Maryland
Can Virginia's hot streak continue? The Terps have been historically dominant at home and other than a bad loss to Miami, they've been perfect there so far this year. Maryland has the personnel to guard Virginia's big three in Diane, Singletary, and Reynolds. I'd also take my chances with Osby, Ibekwe, and Gist in the paint over Cain and Pettinella/Mikalauskas although Cain was big time in their earlier win over Maryland. Virginia shot 49! free throws at home that proved to be the difference against Maryland a couple of weeks ago, but I don't see anything like that happening at the Comcast Center. Maryland picks up a much needed win and continues to hold serve at home.

Maryland 86 Virginia 78

Air Force at San Diego State
Air Force hasn't been great on the road in the MWC so far going 2-2 with losses to BYU and Utah. SDSU can bang down low with Abukar and Habel and everybody's finally healthy which has been a rare occurance recently. The Aztecs have also really been picking it up on the defensive end the past few weeks, including at Air Force where they held the Falcons to 39% shooting. The Falcons have gotten severely outrebounded on the road this season and I think the trend continues tonight. Air Force ultimately keeps it very, very close but SDSU picks up another game on the Falcons in the standings.

San Diego State 60 Air Force 56

LSU at Tennessee
LSU has put themselves in a really tough spot needing a road win against the Vols. And I'm really not sure how they can win. Davis and Mitchell have to absolutely go nuts against UT's smallish frontcourt to lead LSU to victory. Unfortunately, that still might not be enough due to, perhaps, the worst guard play in the SEC right now. And that's not good news when you go up against Pearl's press. Now that Minor's off the team, which probably IS good news for LSU, the Tigers really only have two guards that can effectively bring the ball up the court. Temple's an awesome defender and I'm sure he'll do a good job on a hobbled Lofton, but I think Tennessee just has too put around the perimeter for LSU.

Tennessee 80 LSU 71

Other scores
A-10
Villanova 81 St. Joseph's 69

ACC
Wake Forest 91 Winston-Salem State 52

Big 12
Missouri 76 Iowa State 72
Texas Tech 75 Nebraska 66

Big East
Providence 84 Cincinnati 69

Big South
Winthrop 79 Liberty 66
High Point 71 Savannah State 69

Big Ten
Ohio State 78 Michigan 63

Independents
Utah Valley State 78 UC Davis 58

MAAC
Manhattan 74 St. Peter's 57

MAC
Kent State 71 Toledo 64
Ohio 75 Western Michigan 73

MVC
Missouri State 80 Illinois State 68

Mountain West
BYU 74 Wyoming 65

OVC
Tennessee State 72 UT-Martin 59

Patriot
Holy Cross 69 Army 58
Bucknell 60 American 55

Southern
Davidson 81 UT-Chattanooga 70

Sun Belt
Florida Atlantic 79 Longwood 72