#3 BYU Listed As Double-Digit Sportsbook Betting Fave

The #3 BYU Cougars are listed as a double-digit sportsbook betting fave versus the New Mexico Lobos on Wednesday, March 2.

BYU is coming off of a stunning, awesome, beat down put onto the San Diego State Aztecs. The Cougars beat SDSU straight up 80 to 67 as 4 ½ point road dogs. Now, on Wednesday, the Cougars take on New Mexico, a team that they lost to by a score of 86 to 77 on Jan. 29. Is BYU destined for redemption on March 2?

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New Mexico Lobos (18-11) at #3 BYU Cougars (27-2)

Where: Marriott Center, Provo, Utah

When: March 2, 2011 at 10:00 pm EST

TV: TBD

NCAAB Betting Lines

New Mexico Lobos +12 -110 O 149 -110

BYU Cougars -12 -110 U 149 -110

Check out some trends for this game.

• The New Mexico Lobos are 4 and 1 ATS in their last 5 road games.

• The New Mexico Lobos are 1 and 7 ATS in the last 8 meetings in BYU.

• The BYU Cougars are 2 and 11 ATS in their last 13 games following an ATS victory.

• The BYU Cougars are 0 and 5 ATS in their last 5 home games versus a team with a losing road record.

BYU hasn’t lost since the Lobos put that beat down on them in January. BYU is 7 and 0 straight up since then but only 4 and 3 against the sportsbook betting spread. The Cougars failed to cover a 13 ½ point spread versus Colorado State two games ago in an 84 to 76 victory. They’ve also failed to cover against Utah and Wyoming in their past 7 games.

New Mexico is probably a better team than Utah or Wyoming and they might be as good or better than Colorado State. Does that mean that New Mexico is the team to back against the spread on Wednesday night? That would appear to be the case. The Aggies average 73.6 points per game while shooting 46.5% from the field per contest. On defense, New Mexico allows only 65.7 points per game on 41.7% shooting.

In the first meeting between these two, New Mexico held the Cougars to 41.8% from the field. Jimmer Fredette had a terrific game with 32 points, but New Mexico decided that it made more sense to defend against all of BYU’s other players than to exclusively try to shut down Fredette. It worked brilliantly as the Lobos, as 2 ½ point home dogs on the sportsbook betting lines, upset BYU straight up.

But I don’t expect that same thing to happen on Wednesday night. New Mexico got 16 points from Tony Snell in the first meeting. Snell averages less than 5 points per contest. BYU’s not going to allow Snell to come anywhere close to 16 points on March 2. Where will New Mexico get the points? From nowhere. The Lobos are going to find that things are much different in Provo than they are in Albuquerque. New Mexico is only 5-6-1 against the sportsbook betting spread in their away games this season.

I’ll be betting that they don’t get to 6-6-1 ATS. BYU is the better team and are probably still stinging from the beat down that the Lobos put on them in January. I see the Cougars coming out and firing on all cylinders as soon as they tip the ball off on Wednesday night.

BYU is the team to back to cover the spread on March 2. They will find redemption by blowing out the New Mexico Lobos.

NCAA Odds Betting Pick: BYU Cougars -12

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