FREE COLLEGE BASKETBALL PICK – THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2009
Wake Forest Demon Deacons (14-4) v #22 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (14-5)
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The No. 22 Yellow Jackets will look to get back on the rails when they host ACC rival Wake Forest at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum on Thursday evening in Atlanta, Georgia.
The last time these two met was on Feb 18, 2009, with the Demon Deacons cruising to a comfortable 87-69 rout.
The Jackets have struggled with turnovers all season, and 29 of them helped the Florida State Seminoles edge out a 68-66 win over GT on Sunday night down in Tallahassee. The Seminoles held Tech’s leading scorer Gani Lawal, to a single field goal for the second time this season. Freshman Brian Oliver was the story in this one. Oliver came off the bench and hit six 3-pointers and scored a career-best 20 points. Derrick Favors contributed 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds in the loss. Tech has shot poorly from the free-throw stripe all year, going 11 of 22 against FSU. They are winning games because they continue to play strong defense, and they can rebound just as well as any other team in the ACC. Six-foot-five sophomore guard Iman Shumpert is back in the line up after recovering from the torn meniscus he got repaired earlier this season, and scored 30-ponits against UNC earlier this month. This should help the Jackets to improve their shooting percentage.
Meanwhile, Wake Forest’s Ishmael Smith scored 21 points, pulled down seven rebounds, dished out six assists and blocked two shots in a 69-57 win over Virginia on Saturday. Wake Forest shot 52 percent, while its defense completely shut down the conference leading Cavaliers holding them to a 34 percent shooting average while snapping their eight-game win streak. The Deacon’s like to play a pack-line defense, slowing down the opposition. They have been successful defending against 3-point shooting and limited Virginia, which had the best 3-point shooting rate in the ACC entering the game, to just 23.8 percent (5-for-21). One area for improvement is the need to take better care of the ball. The Demon Deacons have had more turnovers than their opponent in their last four including 24 in the game against Virginia.
The odds makers have the Yellow Jackets at –4 1/2-point favorites in this one
Wake Forest has won their last two by double-digit margins and boast a record that says their talent level is on par with teams receiving more widespread recognition. The Jackets need to improve their poor foul shooting and sloppy half-court offense if they want to beat the Deacons.
I expect a close first half with the Deacons edging out a close 3 point win in the closing seconds.
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- Wake Forest is 4-2 ATS in its last 6 games
- Wake Forest is 10-2 SU in its last 12 games
- Wake Forest is 7-3 ATS in its last 10 games on the road
- Wake Forest is 7-3 SU in its last 10 games on the road
- Georgia Tech is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games
- Georgia Tech is 13-4 SU in its last 17 games
- The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Georgia Tech’s last 5 games
- Georgia Tech is 8-1 SU in its last 9 games at home
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