Bryan Power – Sports Handicapper

10* Oral Roberts (8:00 ET): Oral Roberts is looking to keep pace with South Dakota State (who handed them their lone conference loss) in the Summit League. The Eagles are flying high with a 6-1 SU conference record and have won five straight since going down 82-76 at SDSU back on December 22nd (did cover as 9-point underdogs). It’s a fairly easy matchup on the docket for Thursday, one that I believe ORU is going to win in blowout fashion. 

North Dakota is at the opposite end of the Summit League spectrum right now. The Fighting Hawks are 0-5 SU in conference play and 4-14 SU overall this season. Things have been pretty ugly for some time now as they’ve dropped 13 of the last 15 games and both wins were against non-DI opponents. The last time ND won a game was December 14th. Their eight road games have all resulted in defeat, by an average of almost 20 PPG. They’ve covered the spread in just one of them. This promises to be one of the toughest road trips of the season. 

Oral Roberts has covered seven of its last eight games. They have dominated at home this season, averaging 90.7 PPG while allowing only 59.4. I expect the margin of victory tonight to approach 30 points. The Eagles are shooting above 44% from three at home while allowing opponents to shoot just 27.1%. North Dakota is getting torched on the defensive end with the first five conference opponents shooting better than 50%.. The Fighting Hawks are 24-47 ATS their L71 games, including 9-29 on the road. 10* Oral Roberts

8* Georgetown (5:00 ET): Things have gone rather poorly for the Hoyas of late. They’ve lost four in a row, including three straight by double digits to open Big East play. COVID-19 has certainly played a significant role with even HC Patrick Ewing having to miss games. Ewing is expected back on the bench tonight though and I’m expecting a bit of an inspired effort. It also helps that G’town is facing an opponent that’s also been in a battle with COVID, causing them to be inactive for nearly two weeks. 

That would be Providence, a team who I already felt was overrated and not worthy of being ranked in the Top 25. The Friars have the #1 “luck rating” (per KenPom) in the country this season. Their record is 14-2 and they are ranked #21 in the country coming into this game. However, my power ratings don’t even think of them as a top 45 team. After a 12-day layoff, expect the Friars to struggle a bit here, especially at the outset. 

Earlier this month, before their COVID pause, I played against Providence twice. The first play went even better than expected as the Friars got destroyed by Marquette, 88-56, thus proving my point about them being overrated. Two days later, they bounced back with an 83-73 win over St. John’s (at home), but note they were down at halftime in that one. Georgetown is desperate and with Providence coming off such an extended (unplanned) layoff, I’m taking the points. 8* Georgetown

10* Over Suns/Mavericks (7:35 ET): Two hot teams meet in Dallas, on TNT, tonight. The Suns are looking to complete a perfect 5-0 road trip while the Mavs have won three straight at home and four in a row overall. While Dallas has been playing excellent defense of late, evident by the fact the Under has hit in 11 of their last 12 games including each of the last six, keeping Phoenix in check will be a tall order. 

Over their last three games, the league-leading Suns have won by an average of 19.7 points. Devin Booker is leading the charge by scoring 37.7 PPG in those L3 wins and he turned in a season-high 48 in the 121-107 win at San Antonio on Monday. Do note that Phoenix trailed going into the 4Q of that last game, but was able to hold the Spurs to just 16 points over the last 12 minutes. Don’t think they’re going to be able to do that again, although from the Suns’ perspective it may not matter if they continue scoring the way they have. They are averaging 112.5 PPG for the season. 

Dallas held Toronto to 38.5% shooting, including 8 of 32 from three-point range, in the last game. There’s virtually no shot they can keep the Suns in check to that degree. It's the combination of defensive efficiency and slow pace that has led to the recent rash of Unders for the Mavs, but eventually one of these games is going to go Over and I think they’ve got the right “dance partner” tonight. Dallas has also shot VERY poorly from three-point range in its last five games, which I feel is going to change. 10* Over Suns/Mavericks