Oklahoma St enters off an easy 81-67 win over in-state rival Oklahoma last night. But do not be fooled by the Cowboys’ 14-point win because Oklahoma was a team in shambles and Oklahoma St’s blowout win was sort of a forgone conclusion. In reality, despite their 22-9 overall record, the Cowboys are not really that good of a team. To their credit they do have some solid home wins over some of the better teams in the Big 12, but on the road, in games in which they are lined to be the weaker team (underdog), Oklahoma St has shown their true colors. The Cowboys have 9 losses, and 8 of them have come on the road. They were underdog in every one of those eight losses, and they went a dismal 1-7 ATS in those games. As an overall underdog, the Cowboys went just 3-8 ATS this season which is certainly an indication that Oklahoma St had a hard time when stepping up in class this year. And after their cakewalk last night, they are most definitely taking a huge step up tonight against a Kansas St team that will be playing with a chip on their shoulder in this spot. Kansas St comes into tonight off back-to-back losses to Kansas and Iowa St. The Wildcats also have same-season revenge tonight as they lost on their home floor as a 9 ½-point favorite to the Cowboys they’ll face tonight. Okie St came back from a half-time deficit in that game after K-St went ice cold from the field in the second half. The Wildcats have been waiting to get their chance at a re-match, and that time has finally come tonight. Kansas St is also in consideration for a # 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but they must make a deep run in the Big 12 tournament to have any shot at that. So tonight is a huge game for them, and since they’ll be playing with extreme focus and motivation, we’ll back the Wildcats at what looks to be a very cheap price.

Play KANSAS ST (-).

Atlanta is in a very good scheduling spot to get a convincing win tonight. The Hawks come into this game off back-to-back road losses at Miami and at New York in their latest. Atlanta’s offense really struggled in those two games as they scored just 94 and 98 points respectively. The Hawks shot miserably from the floor in those games; a combined 41.2% (68-165) from the field and just 29.3% (12-41) from three-point land. Atlanta’s offense figured to regress some in those two games because the Hawks scored 103 points or more while averaging 113 points per game over their previous five games. The Hawks will bounce back with a strong effort tonight because they’ve had a full two days of rest to get ready. They catch a Washington team in a major funk right now; the Wizards have lost four straight games and six of their last seven overall. They’ve covered just two of those pointspreads; one being a win over dismal New Jersey and the other a loss, but pointspread cover as a double digit underdog at Boston. Washington doesn’t match-up well with Atlanta either as they’ve lost the two meetings this season by 12 and 11 points, and going back further, the Wizards have lost seven straight to the Hawks with five of those losses coming by more than tonight’s pointspread. The Hawks also qualify in a strong 27-9 ATS situation that plays on quality road favorites off back-to-back SU losses. So in a focused spot off a couple of losses, Atlanta gets an easy road win tonight.

Play HAWKS (-).

Marquette played an easy game yesterday afternoon. The Golden Eagles’ 57-55 win over St. John’s was played at an extremely slow pace with the majority of the game played in the half-court. The game took nothing out of the Marquette players so fatigue should not be an issue for them today. Yesterday’s 2-point win was a typical Big East conference game for Marquette. Of the 18 conference games they’ve played this season, 12 of them have been decided by 5 points or less. They are simply a team that plays in a lot of close games, so it should be of no surprise that the underdog in Marquette’s conference games is now 11-3 ATS when getting two points or more. The series with Villanova has certainly qualified in the above spread pattern as both meetings this season were decided by just two points each; Villanova won 74-72 and 78-76. When these two met in the Big East tournament last year, it was the same exact situation as today. Marquette had played the day before while Villanova had the extra rest, but the outcome was similar as Nova won that game by a single point (76-75). So with the recent history, there’s no reason why today’s game won’t be close once again and come right down to the final few possessions. Villanova is not in good current form right now either; the Wildcats are just 2-4 over their last six games. Going back a bit further, they are just 5-5 over their last ten ballgames and only 3-7 ATS in those games. Marquette has 10 losses on the season, but 8 of those losses have come by 5 points or less. So if we combine that number with the underdog number noted above, we have a strong 21-5 ATS spread pattern favoring Marquette in this game. With the history of close games and the recent play of both teams, we expect this game to come right down to the wire once again.

Play MARQUETTE (+).