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Marquette at Pitt
3/4/09
Here we go again! Another battle in the Big East!
Although the Marquette Golden Eagles aren’t looking as promising as they were
before Louisville handed them another loss, Marquette still posses a threat to a
very good Pittsburgh Panthers team in what is a must win situation for them if
they still want a chance at winning the Big East conference title.
The final two games of the season will be challenging to say the least for the
Panthers as they have to face the Golden Eagles and then the Big East leading
UConn Huskies immediately after. Granted the Panthers do have the edge of the
Huskies with the way they dominated them in the paint in their last meeting, but
you can bet that Coach Jim Calhoun will have a new and improved game plan in
their second and final meeting of the season.
As for Marquette they will try and salvage what they can in the rest of the
regular season before heading into the NCAA tournament. The Golden Eagles will
be coming into this game with two straight losses two UConn and Louisville in
which the Huskies beat them convincingly and Cardinals just got by them with a
four point victory.
Although Marquette’s chances of winning a Big East title are basically slim to
none, these final two games could be a huge momentum boost going into the Big
Dance. With wins over both Pittsburgh and UConn, arguably two of the best teams
in the country, the Golden Eagles will be flying high will confidence going into
the NCAA tournament.
The Panthers will be looking to close out the season as strong as possible and a
win over both Big East heavyweights in Marquette and UConn would be just what
the doctor ordered. The recent loss to Providence was a huge disappointment and
big blow to their confidence and if the Panthers can’t figure out a way to
rebound from that as quickly as possible they could be in trouble come
tournament time.
Pittsburgh was able to somewhat recover from the upset loss to Providence with a
win over lowly Seton Hall in their last game, but their toughest tests of the
season are just around the corner for the Panthers.
The one thing, besides DeJuan Blair’s double-double average, that the Panthers
have going for them in the final two games of the season is the fact that both
games will be played in Pittsburgh where the Panthers are a perfect 17-0 this
season.
Although UConn is a different story altogether, I don’t think that Pittsburgh
will have much trouble with Marquette as long as their two star forwards in
DeJuan Blair and Sam Young play as good as they have all season long.
There is always a chance of an upset in college basketball, just look what
happened to the Panthers against Providence, so to say the Golden Eagles
couldn’t win this game would be foolish, but I would be surprised to see it.
Bet Jamaica has this game Pitt -10.5 with a total of 148. We'll lay
the -10.5 here and also lean slightly towards the Over.
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