In college hoops, there are over 300 teams that play Division I basketball. And, unlike football, all of the teams have a opportunity to play for the National Championship in April. But like football, most of the national attention is given to the Huge Six conferences. The attention is deserved it is been given that that outstanding 1990 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels team that someone from a non-BCS conference won the national title.
The lines are a lot sharper in those Big Six conference games simply because of the vast amounts of information the public has when it comes to those teams. Believe me, it’s tough to make a living beating the books by only playing key conference college basketball games. And by the time April rolls around you’ll probably be seeking at a brief stack.
Even so, there is a lot of income to be made by playing the mid-major conferences, specifically some of the far more obscure ones. If you dig deep and do your homework you can truly gain a sizeable benefit over square bettors by becoming an professional in some of the lesser-known leagues. In this write-up, we’re going to try to shed some light on an area of the college basketball landscape that not too numerous widespread bettors wander: the Large Sky Conference. And in particular we’re going to break down one team from the Massive Sky that is been filling up scoreboards and stat sheets, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks.
This team from Flagstaff, Arizona is one of my favorite teams to play on as a handicapper with Doc’s Sports. In their 15 games this season they’ve scored over 90 points 5 occasions and have cracked the century mark on three occasions. The Lumberjacks played a brutal non-conference schedule that included games against Kansas, Arizona, Arizona State and UNLV. They actually went into Tempe and beat their in-state rivals, the Sun Devils, on Nov. 13, 75-71. Also, they are almost unstoppable at The SkyDome, the exact same creating where the NAU football team plays and exactly where the Arizona Cardinals host their coaching camp. The Lumberjacks have been beaten just when at SkyDome, losing to Weber State in a game that NAU in fact led at halftime.
In contrast to their tough nonconference slate, the Lumberjacks have in fact been really fortunate with their Massive Sky schedule. Their very first four league games had been at property and here at Doc’s we’ve been in a position to money in with the Jacks in three of those four contests. We’ve been partial to them in portion since of the reality that their offense scores at such a high rate that they’re able to cover some monster numbers. They play a lot of guys – eight players typical 15 minutes per game – and they enjoy to get up and down the court.
Balance is the crucial for this squad, with Ruben Boykin top the team in points with just more than 16 per game. The 6-feet-7 forward does significantly of his harm inside and is the model of consistency, scoring in double figures twelve straight occasions. Tyrone Bazy, a senior guard from Texas that likes to beat his opponents off the dribble, is the main man on the perimeter. He has truly come on of late, scoring 57 combined points in his last two conference games, and single handily earned us the victory against Eastern Washington last Saturday by shooting 71 percent from the field and 92 percent from the charity stripe. The balance of this team continues with four players averaging about double figures. All of this has allowed the Lumberjacks to be electric on offense, averaging more than 81 points per game. And that quantity contains the Kansas game in which the Jacks managed just 57 points.
With such an outstanding team on offense, it may appear to some that this team would in no way lose, but that is not the case as they presently sit at 8-7 on the season. The tradeoff for scoring so many points is that their defense suffers. They lead the conference in turnovers, averaging more than 19 per game. This is an astonishing number, considering they typical just 18 assists per game. They play a gambling style of defense and already have over 100 steals on the young season. Nevertheless, when they miss their opportunity it leads to easy baskets for the opposition. A ideal example of this style is their game against Eastern Washington. NAU shot 60 percent from the field – such as a exceptional 73 percent from behind the arc – but only won the game by 8 points, 109-101.
Northern Arizona is one of my preferred teams to watch and you can anticipate to see their games as selections for the remainder of the year. This is a team you want to play at the SkyDome and play against when they are on the road. I would never ever play the under with them, regardless of how high the total is. Hopefully, we can continue to hit 75 percent on them!
Doc’s Sports is your one-cease shop for all your college basketball betting wants. We have gotten off to an additional very good start to this season and we will be going with our, “Underdog Game of the Year” this Saturday, Jan. 13.