<\/a>
\n* BYU has had the rebounding edge in seven of the last ten meetings<\/p>\nThe Mountain West may be one of the most underrated basketball conferences. These teams are tied in the Mountain West standings, with a 7-3 record. That would put them a game and a half behind the league-leading Utah Utes, and a half-game behind San Diego State.<\/p>\n
It’s tough as hell to play at the “Pit” in Albuquerque, where New Mexico pitches its tent. Last season the BYU Cougars went in there and pulled out a 70-69 overtime win. This season it was a different story, as the Lobos rolled to an 81-62 win, in a game where the Cougars were able to hit just 39% of their shots. Lee Cummard was just 1-for-7 from the field and only four trips to the line brought his total to seven points. That’s way out of character for the 6’7″ senior guard, who is nailing 57% of all shots and 44% from three-point range. He hasn’t missed a free throw in his last five games and is a sizzling 66% from the field in his last five games.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Tavernari, the 6’6″ swingman, has been hot too, hitting 67% in his last two, including seven of ten from beyond the three-point arc. This BYU team hits 51% overall, so it is unlikely that they will get the shakes this time around in the Marriott Center, where this club has at time been a dominant force.<\/p>\n
New Mexico had a bit of a hairy time of it against Air Force last time out, blowing a 15-0 lead to fall behind before coming on to overtake the Falcons 76-66. This was not a great sign against the Mountain West’s cellar-dweller. The Lobos do a lot of things that would tend to give them a chance on the road. They defend well (40% FG’s allowed) and have a +3.4 ratio of assists to turnovers. BYU has put some momentum together, with four straight conference wins by an average of 24 points a game. They’re +5.5 in turnover margin, plus-6 in rebounding margin at home, and they want payback.<\/p>\n
Steve Alford’s team is certainly angling for position in the race for an NCAA at-large spot, but this game could be a nightmare for them. We’re going to lay the points with BYU, the 6.5-point favorite in the BetUS Sportsbook NCAA college basketball betting odds.<\/p>\n
Our PLAY: BYU -6.5 ***<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The New Mexico Lobos and the BYU Cougars will both be trying to pick up a win on Tuesday when they battle at Marriott Center. Oddsmakers currently have the Cougars listed as 6-point favorites…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1415],"tags":[10595,10594,3350,5039,4207,4212,4631,2188,3795,10593,4787,4788,8677,10591,10590,10589,10592],"class_list":["post-8473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-bet-on-byu","tag-bet-on-new-mexico","tag-byu","tag-byu-cougars","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-college-basketball-handicapping","tag-college-basketball-odds","tag-cougars","tag-lobos","tag-lobos-vs-cougars","tag-ncaa-basketball-free-picks","tag-ncaa-basketball-handicappers","tag-ncaa-basketball-line","tag-new-mexico","tag-new-mexico-lobos","tag-new-mexico-lobos-vs-byu-cougars","tag-new-mexico-vs-byu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8473"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103690,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8473\/revisions\/103690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}