*3 Star Play Under* The Portland Blazers are without C.J. McCollum here. McCollum has a knee injury. Without McCollum, the Blazers lose a major offensive weapon. Portland doesn't have the great second scoring option in the backcourt now. On other hand, McCollum's defensive stats have never been very good, and they might be a bit better on defense with him on the bench.

Indiana is without their best scorer in Oladipo as well. The Pacers have scored 108 points or less in six straight games. They have scored 105 points or less in 5 of their last 6 games. The Pacers slow the game down, and they'll try to avoid a high scoring contest here.

Portland's tempo is slightly below league average, and without McCollum it should be tough for them to be as efficient on offense.

This is a game between two good teams late in the year. That's a solid under angle in the NBA in the past decade.

The under is 23-8 in the Pacers last 31 games vs a team with a 60% or higher winning percentage.

Take the under.

*3 Star Play Under* The UT Arlington Mavericks and the Georgia State Panthers meet in the Sun Belt Tournament final to decide who will represent the conference in the NCAA Tournament.
Georgia State plays a unique zone defense that can be a very tricky matchup. UT Arlington isn't efficient against a man offense (26th percentile in the country), but they are even worse against a zone defense (15th percentile). Georgia State isn't very good in transition defense, but Arlington ranks in the 2nd percentile in transition offense.
Georgia State has a solid offense, but I've been impressed with UT Arlington's ability to switch up their defenses. They have a solid man defense and a solid zone defense. The Mavericks do struggle with turnovers on the offensive end, and I see quite a few turnovers there.
Lakefront Arena is the venue here and the under has done well here. The under is 32-19 in the 51 postseason games played here.
Take the under.

*4 Star Play Under* The Montana Grizzlies and Eastern Washington Eagles play for a berth in the NCAA Tournament tonight. Both of their games in the regular season played to a pretty slow pace, but the shooting was good. In this game, I would expect the pace to slow down some. After all, this game means far more than those regular season matchups did.

These are two of the top defenses in the Big Sky. This is a game played at a large arena in CenturyLink at Boise. This is a positive for the under as well.

Look for a tightly played game.

Take the under.

*4 Star Play Under* The UT Arlington Mavericks like to slow the game down. They are the second ranked defense in the Sun Belt.

Georgia Southern plays extremely fast, but they aren't always efficient on offense. Georgia Southern is the third ranked defense in the Sun Belt.

The two regular season meetings between these two teams finished at 139 and 141 points. This game is the semifinal game in the Sun Belt Tournament, and there is a lot more on the line than there was in either of the first two meetings.

This game is also played at Lakefront Arena, which is noted for being a difficult shooting backdrop.

Take the under.

*4 Star Play Under* Cal State Fullerton won in overtime yesterday against UC Davis. UCSB won by 3 over Cal State Northridge. These two teams both played to a slower pace than their season average. These games mean more now. If they lose they go home. That typically leads to a slower pace.

Cal State Fullerton is 280th in the nation in offensive efficiency. They are averaging only 0.98 points per possession this year. UCSB is solid on offense, but they rank 314th in the nation in tempo.

Cal State Fullerton ranked 2nd in the Big West in defensive efficiency. UCSB ranked 4th.

Honda Center is the venue here, and this is a massive hockey arena. These teams aren't accustomed to the spacious backdrop and that has caused massive shooting problems from Big West teams here in the past. The under is a whopping 33-8 in the last 41 Big West Tournament games here with a total of 131 or higher.

Take the under.

*3 Star Play Under* The St. Bonaventure Bonnies have been excellent on defense of late. How good? The Bonnies have allowed 58 points or less in six of their last eight games. They haven't allowed more than 64 points in any of those eight games.

George Mason's offense has been struggling late in the season. George Mason scored just 37 points on VCU recently, and they struggled to a 61-57 win over a bad George Washington defense yesterday.

The two meetings between these teams this year were played at a slow tempo. The first game finished at 121 points. The second game went to 135 points because St. Bonaventure made 11/19 three pointers and averaged 1.25 points per possession. They average only 1.01 points per possession and this game is on a neutral floor.

It is win or go home time for both teams. The under generally does well on neutral court games like this one. St. Bonaventure has played six straight games under this number.

Take the under.

*3 Star Play Under* Hawaii and Long Beach State met twice during the regular season. One game finished with a total of 131 points. The second game finished at 147 points with some extremely good 3 point shooting numbers.
Hawaii doesn't like to run as much as Long Beach State, and I think Hawaii has the guards to slow this game down and turn it into more of a halfcourt style game.
This game is played at the Honda Center. You won't find a better under venue, especially for a small conference like this. The Big West schools are small, and they aren't accustomed to playing in a big venue like this one. This is a hockey arena and the shooting backdrop is very tricky for basketball. The under is a whopping 30-7 in the last 37 games here with a total of 131 or higher.
With a total set this high and two teams fighting hard to play another day in a hockey arena, I have to take the under here.
Take the under.

*4 Star Play on Marshall* The Marshall Thundering Herd were picked to finish second in Conference USA. They probably have the second most talent in the league behind only Western Kentucky. Marshall was disappointing for much of the season, and in the middle of the year they went through a confusing terrible slump. Part of that slump was a game at Southern Miss where they lost 101-51! That was after an emotional overtime loss on the road the game before.

Marshall's players have talked a lot about that loss and how much they remember that game as a low point. Now, they get a chance to exact their revenge. Marshall is clearly the more talented team here, and they are playing their best basketball of the season right now.

Southern Miss has done a great job maximizing talent this year, and they are a solid team. Their upside isn't as high as Marshall's. Marshall has won 6 of their last 7 Conference USA tournament contests.

Southern Miss has played in a bunch of close games this year. There is definitely a chance the 3 points matter in this one. Southern Miss also has some ugly losses. They lost at home to Division 2 William Carey. They also lost on a neutral to North Florida.

Marshall is the better team. I'll take the points in a big revenge spot.

Take Marshall.

*4 Star NBA Red Hot CASH* The Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers meet on Thursday night.

Oklahoma City played last night and picked up a win against Brooklyn. Their defense was very good in that game, but the offense wasn't very good outside of Russell Westbrook who had a great game.

The Oklahoma City offense has struggled in the past ten games. The Thunder rank 29th out of 30 teams in the NBA in offensive efficiency in their last ten. They have still been solid on defense though up in 5th in the NBA in defensive efficiency during that time.

Indiana ranks 26th in tempo, and they aren't going to want to get out and run with Oklahoma City here.

Two good teams squaring off late in the season is a solid under angle in the long run, and I see several reasons to like this one to stay under this fairly high number.

The under is 42-19 in OKC's last 61 games against a team with a 60% or higher win percentage. The under is 21-8 in the Pacers last 29 vs. a team with a 60% or higher win percentage. The under is 35-16 in Indiana's last 51 home games.

Take the under.

*4 Star Play Under* Both UC Davis and Cal State Fullerton are very inefficient on offense. Both teams are very good on defense. UC Davis ranks 307th in offensive efficiency in the country. Fullerton ranks 288th. UC Davis is 156th in defensive efficiency. Fullerton ranks 115th on defense.
These two teams played twice in the regular season. The final scores were 120 and 125 points total. They were hard fought defensive battles.
This game is played at the Honda Center. You won't find a better under venue, especially for a small conference like this. The Big West schools are small, and they aren't accustomed to playing in a big venue like this one. This is a hockey arena and the shooting backdrop is very tricky for basketball. The under is a whopping 30-7 in the last 37 games here with a total of 131 or higher.
With this game meaning more than their two regular season games, the tempo is likely to slow down a bit as well.
Take the under.