Greetings from Las Vegas, where Champ Week has officially arrived.
Over the next 10 days, the city will host four conference tournaments, starting today at the Orleans Arena with the West Coast Conference Tournament.
Top-seeded Gonzaga enters as the -210 favorite despite closing the regular season with a loss to No. 2 seed Saint Mary’s (+230).
VSiN.com managing editor Adam Burke isn’t overly concerned.
The Gaels’ home court in Moraga is one of the best advantages in college basketball, and they showed it in that game — shooting 16-of-33 from three while Gonzaga went 5-of-17. On a neutral floor in Las Vegas, Adam expects that shooting gap to normalize.
👉 Adam’s call: Gonzaga to run the table. More on the WCC Tournament.
Makinen trend to know
From Steve Makinen’s conference tournament database:
WCC tournament games with totals of 147 or higher have been fireworks lately, going 27-12-1 to the Over (69.2%) while averaging 156.8 points per game.
Makinen trend to ignore?
Greg “Hoops” Peterson has a play on a first-round game tonight at the Orleans — but rut-roh… it goes against Makinen’s trend.
San Diego (+5.5) vs. Loyola Marymount — Under 148.5
San Diego enters the tournament in transition after losing both head coach Steve Lavin and leading scorer Ty-Laur Johnson. The Toreros rank 344th nationally in rebound percentage, and their three-point shooting drops sharply from 37.8% at home to 31.4% on the road.
Loyola Marymount hasn’t been much better offensively, ranking 254th in points per possession.
Greg’s projected total: 144.5
👉 Pick: Under 148.5. More plays from Greg.
Other tournament openers
Today
• Missouri Valley
• MAAC
👉 Check the Conference Tournament Hub for everything we publish during Champ Week.
Later this morning on our college basketball page:
• Adam and Tyler Shoemaker will post their top plays
• Josh Appelbaum will break down the early line movement
No plays last night on The Angle system from Luke DiVasta. If any games qualify today, Luke will post them here.
Get real-time steam alerts from the DonBest Screen. Sign up now for a 7-day free trial at go.donbest.com. Use the promo code VSIN10 for 10% off your initial subscription.
Zach Cohen’s NBA Report
Game of the Night
Pistons at Spurs – 8 p.m. ET
This is a potential NBA Finals preview — and a revenge spot for the Pistons. The Spurs won 114-103 in Detroit on February 23, taking advantage of a suspension to Isaiah Stewart. Let’s see how things go with both teams at full strength — or damn close to it.
Tanking Teams To Fade
Mavericks (at Magic), Nets (at Heat), Bulls (at Suns), Kings (vs. Pelicans)
The Jazz and Wizards will also be in action, but they’re unfortunately playing each other. One of them has to win. Good luck deciding who it’ll be, though Trae Young is expected to make his debut for Washington.
FYI: 43 straight collective losses for the league’s bottom-10 teams
Worth Knowing
The Warriors will be without Stephen Curry and Kristaps Porzingis when they take on the Rockets, making Houston a team to consider putting in moneyline parlays as you build out your Tank-A-Palooza plays.
In the Prime Video meeting between the Lakers and Nuggets, Denver will be coming off two full days of rest.
👉 Zach’s Best Bets and Steve Makinen‘s Analytics Report will hit around mid-morning on our NBA page.
World Baseball wager
The U.S. is the favorite in the World Baseball Classic, which began last night, but Adam Burke has a value play:
I do think Venezuela at 9/1 is the best price on the board. They’re very likely to advance to the knockout round out of Pool D, whether they beat the Dominican Republic or not and I think they’re live against any of the other teams that would come out of pool play.
👉 Adam’s analysis of the 20-team field.
Unofficial VSiN Pro tip
If you happen to find yourself at the Orleans Casino this week — or anytime — I highly recommend Big Al’s Oyster Bar.
Order the half Manhattan / half Boston clam chowder.
Yes, both. Mixed up.
Just trust me.
