St Louis at Temple – Owls offense vs. Billikens defense

BetOnline NCAA Basketball Sports Betting Odds: TEMPLE -12

Here are some of the NCAA basketball betting trends as they relate to this matchup:

* STL has won five of its last six games SU

* STL is 2-6-1 ATS in its last nine games

* STL has played four of its last six games OVER the total

* STL has lost four of its last five road games SU

* STL is 0-4-1 ATS in its last five road games

* TEM has won and covered four of its last five games SU

* TEM has played four of its last six games UNDER the total

* TEM has won three of its last four road games SU

Saint Louis has some problems with players putting up bad shots. That wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that the players in question are the team’s three leading scorers, and major components of the team’s three-guard offense. Kevin Lisch (13.8 ppg) is hitting only 37%, Tommie Liddell (13.6 ppg) is only a 40% shooter, and Kwamain Mitchell is at 39%. Lisch is just 30% over his last five games. Saint Louis is able to make up for some of this by slowing the pace and playing some serious defense (allowing 57.2 ppg, 7th best in the country), but the clubs who aren’t susceptible to that are going to bludgeon the Billikens into submission.

Rick Majerus may have to go more with a 1-3-1 zone than he intended to deal with Dionte Christmas, who has ripped through LaSalle, Penn and U-Mass for 30, 25 and 26 points in the last three games. Christmas, who is averaging 21.6 points, has shot 50% or better in each of his last five games. What may wind up presenting even more difficulty for Saint Louis, however, is Temple’s big man, Lavoy Allen, a 54% shooter who recently had 21 points in the win over LaSalle and may become much more of a part of the offense since Saint Louis does not have a lot of inside strength.

Temple has had precious few opportunities to play at home this season, but in one of those outings the Owls throttled Tennessee. In terms of style, that’s sort of a "night and day" thing, but there is an experience gap here, as Saint Louis starts three freshmen much of the time. Is this a team ready to go on the road and win? No. Christmas has the ability to control this game if Saint Louis does not an exceptional job against him. In the BetOnline NCAAB betting odds, we’ll lay the points with the Owls, who have been toughened up with games against Clemson, Tennessee, Kansas, Villanova and U-Mass already.

JAY’S PLAY: TEMPLE -12 **

(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

(Charles Jay makes his share of shots from downtown as a contributor to the BetOnline Locker Room)