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SMU hosts Stanford on Monday night
By: Zach Cohen - StatFox
Published: 12/19/2016  at  7:55:00 AM
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STANFORD CARDINAL (7-3)

at SMU MUSTANGS (8-3)

Moody Coliseum – Dallas, TX
Tip-off: Monday, 9:00 pm ET
Line: SMU -8.0, Total: 130.0

Both Stanford and SMU will be in search of a resume-building victory when the teams meet in Dallas on Monday.

Stanford has been struggling a bit recently, as the Cardinal have lost two of their past three games. Those losses were, however, against St. Mary’s and Kansas, and both of those teams have been outstanding to open up the year. Stanford will be hoping to get back on track with a win over a good SMU team in this one. The Mustangs are hot coming into this contest, as they have now won four straight games. One of those wins was over a solid TCU team, so it’s safe to say that SMU will be a confident bunch when the team takes the floor on Monday. These teams also happened to meet on Nov. 19, 2015, and SMU won that game 85-70 as a 5.5-point favorite. Both teams have some interesting trends working against them coming into this game, though. For Stanford, the team is just 2-11 ATS versus teams who are called for 3+ less fouls per game than its opponents over the past three seasons. SMU, meanwhile, is 42-64 ATS versus teams with a shooting percentage defense of 42% or worse since 1997. For those interested in the total, SMU is 7-0 Over in the past three seasons in home games after three straight games where its opponent grabbed 31 or fewer rebounds.

The Cardinal can really use a victory on Monday and F Reid Travis (18.3 PPG, 9.8 RPG) is the guy that must step up and deliver in this game. Travis has been an animal this season, and he is coming off of a 24-point, 13-rebound performance last game. Travis was 9-for-10 from the field and it’ll take a similarly efficient performance for Stanford to come away with a win. One thing he can do is relentlessly attack the rim. That’s what he did against Kansas on Dec. 3, and he ended up taking 22 free throws in that game. G Dorian Pickens (12.8 PPG, 4.2 RPG) is the other guy that will be really counted on to score on Monday. Pickens has struggled against good competition this season, as he had a total of nine points in the games against Kansas and St. Mary’s. He can’t afford to shrink under the bright lights on Monday, as the Cardinal have almost no chance of winning if he fails to reach double digits in scoring. He also should shoot the three-ball a bit more, as he is hitting 44.4% of his outside shots this season and has taken only five total over the past three games.

The Mustangs are a solid team once again this season and F Semi Ojeleye (17.6 PPG, 7.5 RPG) has proven to be one of the toughest covers in the country thus far. A Duke transfer, Ojeleye has the size to both finish around the rim and get to the line. He is 6’7’’, 250 pounds and that helps him in averaging 5.6 free throws per game. Ojeleye is also a magnificent outside shooter, as he is knocking down 43.8% of his threes this season. That’s even more impressive when factoring in that he is taking 4.4 threes per game. He should be able to have his way with Stanford in this one. The other guys that’ll be carrying the load for this team are G Shake Milton (12.2 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 3.8 APG, 1.5 SPG) and F Ben Moore (11.8 PPG, 7.6 RPG). Milton does it all for this Mustangs team, as he is capable of scoring or dishing it out. He is a very good passer, and he is also a good defender. He’ll do his best to disrupt the Cardinal in this one, as Milton thrives at getting in the passing lanes. Moore, meanwhile, is a guy that’ll really give opposing teams problems inside the three-point line. He can finish around the rim and also has a nice midrange jumper.


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