West Virginia vs Connecticut – College Basketball Picks, Odds & Predictions: XL Center in Hartford, CT, will be the sight for this terrific Big East showdown between the eighth ranked (21-5, 10-4) West Virginia Mountaineers [-2½] visiting the dangerous, sports betting odds underdog (11-16, 6-8) Connecticut Huskies [+2½] tonight. For those interested in betting on the OVER/UNDER for this College Basketball game, Odds makers at SBGGLOBAL.com have projected West Virginia and Connecticut to combine to score a grand total of 136 points.
Even though this season hasn’t exactly gone the way they envisioned out of the gate, the Huskies have proven to have the ability to upset ranked teams when motivated. This has to be present in the minds’ of the Mountaineer players, as close in on a Big East title with a late surge. In order to do so, West Virginia will have to win its first road game at UConn tonight.
The Mountaineers are trying to make up for some of the ground lost when they dropped back-to-back games earlier this month. Thus, WVU finds itself two games behind the Conference leading Syracuse Orange with four games to play. Despite some shooting troubles, the Mountaineers came up with a huge win over Seton Hall on Saturday, 75-63.
“Sometimes when we get up big, we get too lackadaisical and just stop doing what got us the lead, so we need to work on that,” forward Kevin Jones said. “We weren’t getting the shots that we were getting in the first half because we weren’t finding the seams or the open spots that we usually do.”
For UConn, this team is now in danger of falling out of contention from this year’s NCAA tournament, after reaching the Final Four last season. Despite all their struggles, the Huskies have recorded victories over then-No.1 Texas and at No.3 Villanova last week. The win over the Wildcats came in Jim Calhoun’s first game back after taking a medical leave of absence.
Connecticut (16-11, 6-8) is in danger of missing the NCAA tournament after reaching the Final Four last season, but it has a victory over then-no. 1 Texas and won 84-75 at No. 3 Villanova on Feb. 15. The victory over the Wildcats was the Huskies’ first since coach Jim Calhoun returned from a medical leave of absence.
“At this point, we’re desperate,” Jerome Dyson said. “We’ve got to win. That’s our main goal right now is to take it one game at a time and play as hard as possible. This was a big confidence builder for us and we have to look forward to Monday’s game.”
