It's been a relatively down year in the SoCon this year, but that doesn't mean its representative to the NCAA Tournament is going to be any less dangerous. The Chattanooga Mocs have been the favorites all year long to claim the Southern's lone bid to the dance, but they're going to have a tough time taking out the East Tennessee State Buccaneers in the league finale on Monday.
You can bet on college basketball odds at BookMaker.eu every day of the season.
HOW THE EAST TENNESSEE STATE BUCCANEERS CAN COVER THE SPREAD
The Buccaneers have to make this a guard's game. We've seen inconsistencies over the course of the last several games out of the Mocs in their backcourt, and that's where they can be frustrated for sure.
ETSU has two senior transfers who have made a huge difference this year to a team which otherwise probably wouldn't have won 15 games, let alone have had a shot to dance.
Ge'Lawn Guyn transferred from Cincinnati after a disappointing career for the Bearcats. He's not great defensively, but he's already knocked down 81 threes this year and is averaging 18.3 points per game. No one has figured out how to slow him down in recent games, and his 22-point effort against Furman in the SoCon semis marked his fifth straight game with at least 20 points scored.
Deuce Bello has had an interesting collegiate career, as he's bounced from Baylor to Missouri and now to ETSU. He's not a tremendous scorer, but he's a man who can knock down some big shots when given the chance and is scrappy inside the painted area. Bello shoots 47.9 percent from the field in spite of his 30.0 shooting percentage from long range because he gets into the paint a ton and is a great finisher at the rack.
If these two guards can play at a high level on Monday night, East Tennessee State will have a great chance at this upset.
HOW THE CHATTANOOGA MOCS CAN COVER THE SPREAD
The Mocs finished up last season on a high note, and they were the favorites to win the SoCon this year with six of their top seven scorers coming back from a year ago. However, Casey Jones, the team's leading scorer and rebounder last year, has missed most of the season with an ankle injury, and his season is over with.
Sure, Chattanooga has made it this far without him, but we're just not sure about this team's backcourt. Both Greg Pryor and Eric Robertson have taken a step backwards from last year, and neither has had a great season shooting the ball. Pryor did have a great game against Western Carolina in which he scored 16 points with five assists, but the night before against lowly Samford, he didn't score a single point.
Where the Mocs can do some damage is in the paint. Tre McLean and Justin Tuoyo are greater around the basket, and they're the top two scorers on this club at 12.3 and 11.2 points per game respectively.
ANALYSIS AND ODDS PREDICTION
What if we told you one of these teams has won seven games in a row, has covered six of those seven, and has looked dominant here in the SoCon Tournament, while the other has gone 0-5 ATS in its last five games?
Common logic would suggest that UTC is the better of these two teams, but we're going to beg to differ. We see holes in the Mocs in spite of the fact that they've only been beaten five times this year. The Buccaneers aren't fantastic either, but they've got senior leaders in crucial spots, and often times, that makes all the difference.
Forget about the fact that both of the meetings in the regular season resulted in easy victories for the Mocs. Here in the postseason in a one-and-done scenario, everything changes in a hurry, and we'll take the hotter team with the better guards every day of the week.
East Tennessee State 74, Chattanooga 68
Need to fund your account before the big game but don’t have your computer? No problem! BookMaker Sportsbook now offers a mobile betting cashier so you can deposit money directly from your smartphone.
Don’t miss out on getting paid because you couldn’t bet. Click here and deposit at BookMaker now! The game between the East Tennessee State Buccaneers and Chattanooga Mocs will go down Monday, March 7, 2016, at 9:00 p.m. ET at the U.S. Cellular Center. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
