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The Northwestern Wildcats made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history last season and entered this season ranked. Big things were expected after it nearly knocked off Gonzaga in the second round last year, but this year has not gone as planned. Northwestern is off to an 8-4 start and has lost to every decent team it has played. The Wildcats will get one more chance to make some noise before conference play starts when they take on the Oklahoma Sooners on Friday night.
This war on the floor will go down Friday, December 22, 2017, at 7 p.m. ET at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma. The game will be televised live on ESPN2. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Friday schedule.
Opening College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
Unsurprisingly, Northwestern has not done a good job of covering the number this year. The Wildcats lost outright as a favorite against Creighton and Georgia Tech, and they were hammered by 36 points by Texas Tech. Under has been a great bet in their games though and has done extremely well as of late. Each of Northwestern’s last seven games has finished up short of the total.
Oklahoma has one of the best offenses in the country this year. The Sooners are shooting the lights out against their opponents, but are giving up points just as quickly. Oklahoma is 9-1 overall, yet the lack of defense has left them at 3-6 ATS. That has also meant the over has been a phenomenal play in Sooners games. The over is 8-1 in Oklahoma games this year.
Player to Watch
Trae Young is one of the leading scorers in the country and has thrived this season in Lon Kruger’s system. Despite being a freshman, Young has shown poise and maturity beyond his years. Kruger trusts Young to run the offense at a fast pace, and boy has he done a good job of that.
Young takes a lot of shots. He is averaging over 18 shots per game and the majority of those are threes. Unlike other volume scorers that aren’t efficient shooters though, he has been this season. He is knocking down 47 percent of his field goals and 37.5 percent of his threes; both solid numbers.
He doesn’t always just look to shoot either. Young is averaging almost 10 assists per game and showed off his passing skills against Northwestern State on Tuesday night. He doled out 22 dimes to his teammates, by far his best performance of the year.
Key Stat
Northwestern’s slow, methodical pace means it doesn’t give up many points. However, that doesn’t mean that the Wildcats have been playing good defense.
The Wildcats are allowing opponents to sink 44 percent of their field goals this season and 35.1 percent of their threes. That has put them in a bad spot.
Both Creighton and Texas Tech beat them by using their perimeter games. The Blue Jays hit 50 percent of their threes against this defense, while the Red Raiders knocked down 52.6 percent of their attempts.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
These early season match-ups between teams that play two different styles are always interesting. Typically, whichever team gets to play its style fares better. Northwestern wants to limit the number of possessions in get this game and worry about getting good shots, while Oklahoma wants to go, go, go and race up and down the court.
The Sooners play the sexier style of basketball and should be favored here. Young is a real playmaker and hard to close out on, so it’s tough to see Northwestern being able to stop him. The Wildcats had a real hard time stopping Creighton’s guard-heavy lineup earlier in the season, and I think that bodes well for Oklahoma here.
College Basketball Odds: Oklahoma 83, Northwestern 71
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