There's always plenty to be thankful for this time of year, but on this Thanksgiving Day, there's a sneaky good alternative to watching the lowly Lions. The Alabama Crimson Tide and Xavier Musketeers could put on a great show in Orlando to kick off the AdvoCare Invitational.
You can bet on college basketball odds at BookMaker.eu every day of the season.
HOW THE ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE CAN COVER THE SPREAD
Avery Johnson is very likely going to end up doing a great job with Alabama in the long run. He's got his work cut out for him this year, though.
Dazon Ingram and Justin Coleman are both incredibly raw at the point guard spot for the Tide. Neither have played all that much, and when they've been on the court, they haven't been all that effective. That said, they're Alabama's third and fourth leading scorers coming into the trip to Orlando, and they're going to be tasked with keeping good track of the basketball and distributing the ball to Retin Obasohan and Shannon Hale, the men who are clearly going to be the best scorers on the team in 2015-16.
Turnovers are still a real problem for the Tide, though. They're undersized as it is, and not playing well in the backcourt and turning the ball over too often is a real problem. Hale alone has 10 turnovers in three games because he's trying to do too much in the paint, and he's going to run into problems against Xavier’s bigs on Thursday for sure.
Still, if the young point guards are smart with the rock, there definitely is enough raw talent here to keep up with many really good teams, including Xavier.
HOW THE XAVIER MUSKETEERS CAN COVER THE SPREAD
When the X-Men went to Ann Arbor and upset the Wolverines last week, they did so with their bigs. They pulled down a whopping 18 offensive rebounds and were +16 on the glass. Four different players scored at least 14 points, and three had at least nine boards.
That's going to be the formula for Xavier all NCAAB season long, including in this game. This is a team which legitimately goes eight players deep, far more than Alabama can really boast, and the club has a ton of talent.
Trevon Bluiett just has to make sure that he doesn't try to do too much at one time by himself. This offense is best served when the ball is moving around and getting into the paint instead of being kicked out for three points.
Bluiett can pick his spots for sure, as can Remy Abell, but there has to be more focus on men like Jalen Reynolds and James Farr as offensive weapons for the Musketeers to be at their best.
ANALYSIS AND ODDS PREDICTION
There's a real size mismatch here for the Crimson Tide. They're going to try to counter this with a small lineup and more or less force the Xavier power forwards to try to guard out on the perimeter, but we don't see this working over the course of 40 minutes for a team which is largely outgunned.
The Musketeers might be laying a relatively large spread in this game after winning at Michigan last week, but we think they'll still get the job done in a comfortable victory.
Xavier 68, Alabama 53
Access live betting lines from your mobile device at BookMaker Sportsbook! You can wager on sporting events as they unfold on your television with BookMaker's live betting platform. Real-time spreads, totals, props and moneyline odds are all available by clicking here, so start betting with BookMaker today! The game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Xavier Musketeers is scheduled for Thursday, November 26, 2015 at 12:00 p.m. ET at HP Fieldhouse. Catch the game live on ESPN2.
