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The Bryce Drew era got off to a promising start, but things have been disastrous this season. The Vanderbilt Commodores are just 5-7 this year and have yet to beat an opponent from a power conference. This team will need to post a great record in SEC play in order to have a shot at making the NCAA Tournament and need some upsets along the way too. Beating the Florida Gators on the road in their first SEC game would be a great start.
This war on the floor will go down Saturday, December 30, 2017, at 4 p.m. ET at Exactech Arena in Gainesville, Florida. 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 Saturday schedule.
Opening College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
A lot was expected of Florida after a promising showing at the Phil Knight Invitational, but things have skidded off the rails since that point. The Gators lost three of their next four and were at least a 6.5-point favorite in each of their losses. Interestingly enough, the one win during that nadir was over Cincinnati as a slight underdog. Still, this team has been in bad form of late and is 1-5 ATS in its last six. Under has cashed in each of the Gators last five games.
Vanderbilt is the worst team to bet on in the country. The Commodores are 0-9 ATS this season and have lost outright despite being a favorite on three separate occasions. A few of those TS losses were narrow, but it still doesn’t change the fact that this team has not lived up to expectations. The offense has been bad and that has led to the under cashing in seven of nine outings.
Matchup to Watch
Vanderbilt has not been an effective team from the floor this season. The Commodores are hitting just 41.1 percent of their shots and have been unable to create much offense. That doomed them in losses to teams like Belmont and Middle Tennessee State.
Only one player that sees a decent amount of minutes is shooting better than 45 percent from the floor. Djery Baptiste is hitting 51.4 percent of shots from the floor, but he is not able to create his own shot very often and relies on good passing to create easy buckets down low.
The good news for the Commodores is that the Gators have really struggled defensively of late. Florida is allowing opponents to hit 44 percent of their field goals and is outside the top half of college basketball in most defensive categories.
Key Stat
The Gators are one of the highest scoring teams in the nation even though they haven’t shot the ball particularly well lately. Florida is hitting just 44.2 percent of its field goals, yet is averaging 83.7 PPG.
Three-point shooting and getting to the line have been the reasons this team is still scoring at a pretty good pace. Florida runs a four-guard lineup and those four guards are very good at hitting threes and making free throws. The Gators are hitting 37.5 percent of their threes and get to the line almost 23 times a game.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
Surprisingly, Vanderbilt matches up well with Florida in a few different areas. The Commodores have played pretty good perimeter defense this season and haven’t allowed guards to go wild against them. Additionally, this team is pretty disciplined and does not commit a lot of unnecessary fouls that will send the Gators to the line for freebies.
Public opinion is still pretty high on Florida despite its recent run of form. That, along with Vanderbilt’s winless ATS record, will lead to a spread that is a little too high. Look for Vanderbilt to cover for the first time all year.
College Basketball Odds: Florida 74, Vanderbilt 67
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