MLB Best Bets – Free (Wednesday 7/24)
Josh Gross
We’re officially into the quarterfinals of The Basketball Tournament (TBT), which means these games are only getting better and better. Today’s two-game slate will surely be a good one, but you’re going to want to find out who to bet on before sitting down and watching.
Golden Eagles -2.5 vs. Team Brotherly Love – 2:00 p.m. ET
I’m a big fan of the tenacity that Team Brotherly Love brings to the court, but it’s hard to not back the Golden Eagles when the spread is this low. In their first game of the tournament, the Marquette alums dismantled Team CP3, and Darius Johnson-Odom showed the world why he was a second-round pick in the 2012 NBA draft. As we look to this game, it’s hard to imagine things being much different for the lefty, who has the strength and frame to punish weaker guards on his way to the rim but also the ability to hit from deep. Meanwhile, Dwight Buycks and Jamil Wilson are sure to play better this time around. Both players have spent time in the NBA, so it’s clear that the Golden Eagles will have the advantage in talent today. Buycks’ size for a guard will be tough for Team Brotherly Love to handle, and Wilson should make his mark from the perimeter. He’s an absolute marksman from deep, so I expect him to rebound from his first game of the tournament, when he shot just 3-9 from the floor and 2-6 from three.
Brotherly Love is a very good basketball team, and the Golden Eagles will have to pay close attention to Khalif Wyatt and Ramone Moore, who combined to score 51 points in their win over the Stillwater Stars. But it’s just hard to imagine this game staying within one possession once we reach the end of the Elam Ending.
House of ‘Paign -2.5 vs. Red Scare – 4:00 p.m. ET
This game is very similar to the first for me, as I just don’t think House of ‘Paign is getting enough respect from the linemakers. The Illinois alums are coming off an upset victory over Carmen’s Crew, who won last year’s tournament—and knocked off four-time champion Overseas Elite in the process. After a game like that, they need to be taken seriously.
Red Scare looked good in their win over Big X, but this is a significant jump in competition. House of ‘Paign is particularly better in the backcourt, where they have the athletes required to get out and run guys like Ryan McMahon and Darrell Davis off the three-point line. It’s also hard to see Ryan Mikesell finding as much daylight as he did in the first game, and I just don’t know who Dayton is going to send at Mike Daum on the other end of the floor. Daum had 23 points and eight boards against Carmen’s Crew, who had more versatile defenders to throw at him. Red Scare will probably utilize a healthy mix of Mikesell and Trevor Thompson to defend Daum today, but I don’t see either matchup going particularly well for them.
Barring a barrage of threes from the Dayton alums, this game should be pretty straightforward.
