Thursday's college basketball slate tips off with a Northeast Conference battle between the Bryant Bulldogs and Wagner Seahawks. Wagner is favored by 17 points in the 5:00 p.m. ET tip, up half-a-point from the opening line. The Over-Under, or total points Vegas thinks will be scored, is 146.
In a NEC battle with such a huge spread, you need to see what SportsLine's Projection Model has to say.
This model, which simulates every game 10,000 times, completely crushed its top-rated college basketball picks last season, returning a profit of almost $6,600 on $100 bets for anybody who followed them.
That wasn't a fluke, either. The model entered this week on a strong 104-70 run on its top-rated picks. Anybody who has been following those picks is way, way up.
Now it has simulated Wagner vs. Bryant 10,000 times and its picks are in.
We can tell you the model is calling for several big scoring performances for Wagner. Blake Francis is projected to score 16 points, Romone Saunders will go for 15 points and JoJo Cooper will add 10.
But will that be enough for the Seahawks to win and cover this large spread? The computer has a strong pick for that as well.
The model has taken into account that Bryant has been arguably the worst team in the nation this season. The Bulldogs are just 2-23 on the season and 1-11 in NEC play.
They've had plenty of issues, but defense tops the list. Bryant is ranked 336th nationally in scoring defense, giving up 82.2 points per game. It hasn't helped that the Bulldogs are also 328th nationally in rebounding with just 32.4 per contest.
But that doesn't mean that Bryant can't stay within a 17-point spread.
While the losses have piled up in a huge way for Bryant, the Bulldogs have managed to keep many of their games competitive. Bryant hasn't lost an NEC game by more than 16 points.
That includes a relatively competitive contest against Wagner Jan. 11 that the Seahawks won by just nine.
So what side of Wagner-Bryant do you need to be all over? Visit SportsLine now to get SportsLine's advanced computer's strong pick for Wagner-Bryant, all from a model that entered the week on a strong 104-70 run on its top-rated college basketball picks.
