TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2010 – FREE NCAA PICK
#2 Kentucky Wildcats (24-1) vs. Mississippi State Bulldogs (18-7)
The No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats will travel to Starkville, Mississippi to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs in an SEC tilt on Tuesday at the Humphrey Coliseum.
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The last time these two teams met was on Feb 3, 2009. The Bulldogs handed Kentucky its third straight loss by cruising to a comfortable 66-57 victory.
Kentucky has posted five consecutive wins since suffering its only loss of the season at South Carolina, and is coming off a 73-62 win over No. 12 Tennessee on Saturday. Freshman star and leading scorer John Wall scored 24 points while Eric and Bledsoe contributed 16 in the win. The ‘Cats were 39-32 in rebounding advantage and an 18-10 in points from the foul line. Freshman big man DeMarcus Cousins has been on a sensational run but was held to just five points, while dragging down 12 rebounds against the Vols. The Wildcats are averaging 81.3 ppg, and are limiting their opponents to just 65.3 ppg on 37.9 percent shooting from the field.
As for Mississippi State, they are fresh off an 85-75 overtime win over Auburn on Saturday. The Dogs third best scorer Dee Bost netted a career-high 32 points to go along with nine rebounds, while Jarvis Varnado added 10 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, and blocked five shots in the win. Strong defense was key, as MSU limited the Tigers to 36.7 percent shooting. Bost is posting 12.0 ppg to complement his 130 assists through 25 games, and shows no signs of slowing. MSU is netting 73.3 ppg while allowing 62.6 ppg to opponents on 37 percent field goal efficiency.
The odd makers have the Wildcats as –3-point favorites in this one.
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That Bulldogs have pushed their home record to 11-1, so don’t expect them to be intimidated in tonight’s match up. The ‘Cats are no easy team to beat and are boasting a 9-1 record in conference play while winning five ox six contests away from Lexington.
I expect the ‘Cats to edge out a narrow margin victory in Starkville in this one.
- Kentucky is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
- The total has gone OVER in 11 of Kentucky’s last 16 games
- Kentucky is 5-2 ATS in its last 7 games on the road
- Kentucky is 6-1 SU in its last 7 games on the road
- Mississippi State is 3-5-1 ATS in its last 9 games
- Mississippi State is 15-5 SU in its last 20 games
- The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Mississippi State’s last 7 games
- Mississippi State is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
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