The Connecticut Huskies have a big weekend ahead of them. In a span of just 48 hours, they have to take on both Temple and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, the latter of which will come on Saturday night at Gampel Pavilion.
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HOW THE TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE CAN COVER THE SPREAD
Pat Birt has been on fire these last couple games. He put up 27 against Houston and 23 against Temple, and he's going to be the key in this one. Connecticut's defense has been out of this world all AAC season long, and if there's a man who's going to get past one of the toughest teams in the conference, it's Birt.
In Birt, the Golden Hurricane have a man who can shoot from the outside or slash inside the paint for shots, and he's a strong rebounder for a little man, too.
Tulsa is only turning the ball over 10.6 times per game, one of the lowest marks in the conference. If the Golden Hurricane can figure out how to stay in single-digits in turnovers on Saturday night, they'll have an excellent chance of winning this game, albeit in ugly fashion.
HOW THE CONNECTICUT HUSKIES CAN COVER THE SPREAD
When Tulsa beat Connecticut back in January, the Huskies really lost their way on offense after getting off to an 18-7 start. The team only had six offensive rebounds for the game, two of which came in the second half, and on a night where it shot just 30.9 percent from the field and turned the ball over 11 times, that just didn't get the job done.
Even though the Huskies have figured out how to really lock down on defense, they still haven't always gotten their offense in order. Rodney Purvis started in that game and shot just 1-of-9 from the field. Purvis has been much better and has gotten into quicker rhythm coming off of the bench, and if he can't provide a spark for this offense, someone is going to have to get the job done, or this game could really slosh along, giving more and more of a chance for the upset for the visitors.
ANALYSIS AND ODDS PREDICTION
Tulsa's defense has been pretty darn good this year, and if you consider the differential in foul shooting as adjusted to the norm, the Golden Hurricane would rank in the Top 50 in the land in scoring defense. Advanced metrics suggest that Tulsa most certainly has a chance in this game if the affair stays in the 110-120 range as it did in the first meeting of the year.
Though we have utmost confidence in the Huskies here at home of winning this game, this spread is just going to be too high for us to have any desire to lay the lumber. Connecticut's offense has far too many long poor stretches, and though it was able to get the job done by scoring 85 against East Carolina and 77 against Memphis, we still doubt that this is a game in which it gets into the high-60s. We'll happily take the points, though we do think that UConn is going to run its winning streak up to seven out of eight.
Connecticut 65, Tulsa 59
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Don’t miss out on getting paid because you couldn’t bet. Click here and deposit at BookMaker now! The game between the Tulsa Golden Hurricane and Connecticut Huskies will go down Saturday, February 13, 2016, at 8:00 p.m. ET at Gampel Pavilion. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
