NCAA Basketball Free Pick – Tuesday, December 21, 2010
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Stanford (6-3) at Oklahoma State (10-1)
Tuesday, December 21, 9:00 PM EST on ESPNU
Spread: Oklahoma State -9
Over/Under: 127
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The Stanford Cardinal will look to get back on the rails after its three-game win streak was snapped with an 83-50 rout to Butler their last time out when they visit a white-hot Oklahoma State Cowboys at historic Gallagher-Iba Arena on Tuesday night.
Stanford’s Jeremy Green put up 16 points, matching his team-leading season average, but shot just 31.4 percent as the Bulldogs took control with a 20-4 run midway through the first half, leading by 19 at halftime and put it away with 10-0 run to open the second half. Butler manhandled the Cardinal inside outscoring them 28-10 in the paint.
Last year, the Cowboys’ James Anderson scored 28 points to help Oklahoma State edge out Stanford 71-70 as part of the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series. Rematch anyone?
Now the Cardinal will have to face a Cowboys squad that has won six straight including a 68-60 victory over Alabama in Saturday night’s All-College Classic. OSU’s only loss of the year came back on Nov. 26 in the form of a 56-51 defeat to Virginia Tech at the Anaheim Classic.
Junior guard Keiton Page scored 20 points, while Ray Penn added 12.
Alabama went on a 10-0 run to trail by three points midway through the second half, but Page and Penn each hit key 3-pointers to push Oklahoma State back into the lead, and the Cowboys hit 14 free throws over the final six minutes to put the game away.
The Cowboys have been beating their opponents by an average of nearly 11 points per game and senior forward Marshall Moses leads the way with 17. 7 points per game.
OSU is better in just about every category over the Cardinal who has held it opponents to just 60 points per game while shooting 35 percent from 3-point range, with Green leading the way with 45 percent. One area of the floor they can use to their advantage
The other advantage the Cardinal may, they don’t possess. It is the off court setbacks and distractions in the OSU camp after forward Matt Pilgrim, who was dealing with his own shoulder woes, went down at the end of Saturday night’s win over Alabama with a knee injury and the recent news that two so-far-unnamed players are suspects in a sexual assault investigation.
All this after losing point guard Fred Gulley — the team’s best perimeter defender —for the season to a shoulder injury that will require surgery as early as this week.
Oklahoma State has benefited from some strong defense, allowing only 61.5 points per game while limiting its opponents to 38.7 percent shooting overall. However, with the recent injuries to key defensive players including Gulley, those numbers could creep up against a Stanford squad that shoots very good from the perimeter, but not enough to pull off the upset.
Free Pick: Oklahoma State 72 – Stanford 68
The odds makers have the Oklahoma State Cowboys as a -9 point favorite with an over/under of 127.
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