Rating: 2 Units

Thursday night’s result was more of the same from the San Jose State perspective – another beatdown suffered. This time it was 90-57. They’ve been relocated to Phoenix, AZ. The school’s women’s basketball program has been shut down, rather than deal with the fear-based banishment to another state. They lost to the Rams by 33 points despite 35 points from guard Richard Washington. “That’s not very good for us defensively,” said CSU head coach Niko Medved. So now they’ll key on Washington to add insult to another injury.

Rating: 2 Units

The Ottawa Senators are a changed team, as they showed Friday night when they defeated the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 in their season opener. The Senators did not beat the Maple Leafs last season, going 0-2-1 against them. They will have a chance to show that their turnaround is for real when the teams meet again in Ottawa tonight. The Senators, who were 30th of 31 teams in the overall standings last season, had not played a game in 310 days before Friday night because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nine players appeared in their first game as Senators on Friday night, including former Pittsburgh Penguin goaltender Matt Murray, who stopped 20 shots in his 200th NHL game. Consider that the home team is 6-1 in the last 7 meetings.

CBB Mismatch of the Day

And, like we said before picking them at LSU (d-oh!), Arkansas is known for SEC road losses and losing a lot of games after recording 0- and 1-loss non-conference seasons. Alabama has a couple of injuries (Jordan Bruner, Herb Jones) that will no doubt draw Arkansas money but those folks can have ’em ‘cuz we don’t want ’em. Look at those injury chasers, driving the number down.

Rating: 2 Units

The typical Oral Roberts game is a track meet where they try to outscore the other team and fail to cover the spread in the process. You know, like yesterday’s 88-84 win against now 1-9 Denver in which ORU was favored by a heck of a lot more than four. Now, we ask this question: How many chances in life do you get to go against a road favorite in the high altitude of Denver, CO that is playing the second of back-to-backs, off a win, after their point guard played all 40 minutes and scored 34 points on 13-for-30 shooting the day before? Hey now

Rating: 4 Unit MAC Play of the Day

We could have a little zig-zaggy action here with Akron coming home off a road loss at 2-9 Northern Illinois (after a seven-hour bus ride), and Toledo coming in just a little too hot for us to sincerely believe it can continue, off 95-78 and 96-63 home wins vs. Ohio and Eastern Michigan. And, of course, there were the six straight wins before that. And the 99-89 win by Toledo on this floor last season. And yet, we go with the home dog coming off two road losses. It’s their only MAC home game in a five-game stretch.

Rating: 4 Unit SEC Play of the Day

Tell me how will the virus pause affect the Tigers? Tell me Cuonzo, Cuonzo, Cuonzo!’ “I’ve been in leagues where you’ve had a week off. It’s not a bad thing in my opinion. I assume we’ll be fine.” Martin likes it when his 6’10”, 260 Jeremiah Tillman plays against opponents with traditional bigs who don’t step out and shoot three pointers. A&M’s Emanuel Miller and Kevin Marfo have combined to shoot 0-for-5 on three-pointers this season. There you go, coach. A&M has chances to win when they hold opponents to 50-something. Get to 60!

Rating: 2 Units

Georgia responded to a 30-point road loss at Arkansas by coming home and losing by 18 points to Auburn – which we were very happy about. So, we’ll see how Ole Miss reacts to coming off a 14-point home loss to LSU, followed by a  9-point road loss at Florida. They’ve ordered up the right opponent, it seems. The Florida game was 66-63 with :50 remaining when Ole Miss head coach Kermit Davis got a technical for arguing a foul-out called against his 6’8”, 235 Romello White. Good to have some anger carrying over.

Rating: 3 Units

When you work with somebody who doesn’t want to be there and doesn’t think
you’re worthy of their personal goals, and then he leaves, the general feeling is more like, “Good riddance to the SOB!” than “Oh, how can we possibly do our jobs moving forward?” Everybody is replaceable. The Rockets have one game under their belt since James Harden, to nobody’s dismay, was dealt. And, as we suggested in Thursday’s forecast, Houston would be more than merely competitive in his wake. They may not be a championship contender, but neither are the Spurs. However, using Pop off a loss in a quick-turnaround, second crack at an opponent definitely playing without John Wall, Danuel House and Eric Gordon, plus possibly DeMarcus Cousins, and Harden if you want to count him, as well as yet-to-report Victor Oladipo, doesn’t seem like an unreasonable move.

Rating: 4 Unit NBA Play of the Day

Orlando won the first three meetings with Brooklyn last season until the very meaningless fourth, when Brooklyn won 108-96 led by Jeremiah Martin,  Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Dzanan Musa and Tyler Johnson. The Nets are in much better shape physically and scoring-potential now, and they’ll have had two days off since beating the Knicks. Orlando is not in better shape physically or in scoring potential. In fact, they’re worse off. They’ve scored 90, 98, 99, 97 points in their current four-game losing streak. Plus, they’re in a second of road back-to-backs (Nets are rested) coming out of Boston Friday last night, where they were without Mo Bamba, Michael Cater-Williams, Evan Fournier, Al-Farouq Aminu, and the three guys who were already out long-term, Chuma Okeke, Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac.

Rating: 3 Units

After winning their first three league outings, including a 76-58 thumping of Florida on the road, the Wildcats (4-7, 3-1 SEC) took a huge step back in falling to Alabama 85-65 at home Tuesday night. It was the Wildcats' worst loss to the Crimson Tide ever in Rupp Arena and worst to the Tide in Lexington since 1974. Auburn has become a different team since getting a favorable eligibility ruling on freshman Sharife Cooper. Though the Tigers (7-6, 1-4) lost 94-90 to Alabama in the talented point guard's first outing last weekend, they cruised past Georgia 95-77 in Athens in their next outing. Cooper has 54 points, 21 assists, nine rebounds and five steals in his first two collegiate games. Consider Auburn is 10-4 ATS in their last 14 games vs. a team with a winning % below .400.

Rating: 4 Unit PAC-12 Play of the Day

Undefeated in conference play and looking to move back into the national rankings, UCLA is set to put its much-improved offense up against visiting Washington today. The Bruins (10-2, 6-0 Pac-12) will enter off an impressive 91-61 victory Thursday over Washington State when the leaders of the conference shook off their tendency to play to the level of their opponent. UCLA has not gone 7-0 to open conference play since 1993-94. Washington (1-10, 0-6) will enter the game off a brutal 95-68 loss Thursday at Southern California. UCLA is 4-0 since the start of the new year, but Thursday was the first time the Bruins defeated an opponent by double digits in that time. Consider that Washington is 6-20 ATS in their last 26 games as an underdog.

Rating: 2 Units

The under is 14-5 in Monarchs last 19 Saturday games, 13-5 in Monarchs last 18 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600, and 15-6 in Monarchs last 21 road games vs. a team with a winning home record. While the under is 8-3 in Owls last 11 overall and 5-2 in Owls last 7 games following a straight up win

Rating: 2 Units

The over is 6-2 in Aztecs last 8 games after scoring less than 50 points in their previous game, 8-3-1 in Aztecs last 12 games following a ATS loss, and 5-2 in Aztecs last 7 road games.

Rating: 2 Units

The road to the Super Bowl in the NFC runs through Lambeau Field. That is music to the ears of Aaron Rodgers, who is coming off an MVP season of 48 TD passes, & only 5 interceptions (superb, even for him). He is coming in off a bye, & his 10th game this season with 3+ TD passes, and zero picks. The top-rated Ram defense was just incredible vs Seattle last week (11 first downs), holding the Seahawks to 2-of-14 on 3rd down (14%), and the 42-yard "pick-six" by Darius Williams set the tone in that one. The Ram "D" now has 1 or more sacks in 19 straight games. But will Aaron Donald be close to healthy (ribs) vs the highly efficient offense of the Packers? Running Back Cam Akers had the most scrimmage yards (176) in a Ram playoff game since Eric Dickerson in 1985. But note that his 2nd quarter TD was the first offensive TD for the Rams in their last 28 possessions. Packers: 30+ points 12 times this season. Consider that LA is 0-6 ATS in their last 6 meetings while the favorite is 9-1 ATS in their last 10 meetings.