College Ball Southern Style – Florida at LSU

(21-6 SU, 9-11 ATS) Florida Gators at LSU Tigers (23-4 SU, 10-9 ATS)

BetOnline NCAA Basketball Odds: LSU -4

Here are some of the NCAA basketball sports betting trends as they relate to this matchup:

* FLA has covered two of its last six games

* FLA has won 15 of its last 19 games SU

* FLA has played four of its last five games OVER the total

* FLA has lost four of its last five road games SU

* FLA has played six of its last eight road games UNDER the total

* LSU has won its last eight games SU

* LSU has played seven of its last ten games OVER the total

* LSU has covered one of its last five home games

* LSU has won 18 of its last 19 home games SU

* LSU has played five of its last seven home games OVER the total

Also…

* LSU has won and covered five of the last seven meetings

* FLA has won and covered four of the last six meetings as the road team

* FLA has made more three-pointers in eight of the last ten games

It’s not altogether shocking that LSU has put together a season that is worthy of an NCAA tournament bid. What is rather surprising is that this is a team that has real possibilities once they get to the tournament. The job that has been done by first-year coach Trent Johnson, the former head man at Stanford, has been nothing short of sensational, and should certainly put him in the running for the national coach of the year award.

The Tigers have gotten a healthy season from Tasmin Mitchell, great defense once again from Garrett Temple who seems to have been around forever in Baton Rouge, complementary players like Bo Spencer (who’s just returned from injury) and a scoring leader like Marcus Thornton that all make this team hard to defend. They have a three-game lead in the SEC West division, which makes their NCAA bid somewhat secure.

I’ll tell you one thing LSU doesn’t have though – a lot of big wins. In fact, very few. That doesn’t mean much in terms of today’s discussion, except that they are not bullet-proof, and could certainly be defeated by a motivated, well-prepared team. I think those are two categories in which Florida coach Billy Donovan comes up big. It would be inaccurate to categorize this as a desperate team, because this improved edition will most likely find itself in the Big Dance, but the Gators want to win their SEC East race and could use this win to help do it.

Nick Calathes has been a do-everything guy for Donovan, averaging 18.6 points, 6.4 assists and 5.3 rebounds, and at 6’6" he becomes a challenge for LSU’s backcourt to defend, especially if Florida decides to go big with freshman Kenny Kadji (six blocks in last 30 minutes of play) up front. The records of these teams are similar, but the strides made by Florida, an NIT squad last year, haven’t been noticed as much as those at LSU. In this kind of game, I’d rather be on the receiving end, so we’re taking points with Florida, the four-point underdog in the BetOnline NCAA college basketball betting odds.

JAY’S PLAY: FLORIDA +4 ***

(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

(Charles Jay makes his share of shots from downtown as a contributor to the BetOnline Locker Room)