Connecticut Huskies vs St. Joseph's Hawks Point Spread Picks

Billy Lange takes over as head coach after long-time coach Phil Martelli was fired following a 14-19 season. Lange was an assistant for the Philadelphia 76ers and the Hawks opened their season with an 86-81 win over Bradley before losing 82-69 at Old Dominion. Connecticut has suffered three losing seasons in a row and lost their best player, Jalen Adams, to graduation. The Huskies did have a good recruiting year, but they return no starters from last season. The Huskies did beat Sacred Heart with Josh Carlton scoring 18 points with eight rebounds. The Pioneers shot only 30.2 percent and made 4-of-23 from three-point range. St. Joseph's is allowing opponents a .392 field goal percentage in its two games. Connecticut doesn't yet have the talent and experience to cover this big number and the Huskies have gone UNDER 10 of their last 13 home games. Take St. Joseph's and play the UNDER for a Max Play.

Saint Joseph's impressed in conference tournament play, winning three in a row while upsetting St. Louis for the A-10 title. However, this team is 2-3 against top 25 competition, getting blown out by St. Louis (65-49) and by Villanova (98-68). St. Joe's is not a good rebounding team and is terrible from the charity stripe at .635% - worst in the Atlantic 10. Those weaknesses will hurt against a Connecticut team that has power in the frontcourt behind 6-9 junior DeAndre Daniels, plays great defense and has a spark plug all-around guard in Shabazz Napier (17 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 4.9 apg). The Huskies are 21-10 ATS in their last 31 neutral-site games and the value here is with the favorite to win the game.