Tuesday Night College Hoops Picks

Last night was less than stellar. I just plain missed on a few - Wisconsin is really good, Providence is actually pretty decent, and Washington was mind-bendingly not good enough. But shooters gotta shoot, and there are a bunch of college games tonight featuring top 25 teams.

#3 Arizona (-13) @ UNLV, 10pm
Notable wins for Arizona: have beaten everyone they've played including Mizzou (72-53*), Kansas State (72-68*). San Diego State (61-59*), Gonzaga (66-63 in OT), Michigan (80-53), @UTEP (60-55)
Notable wins for UNLV: Temple (57-50*)
Notable losses for UNLV: Stanford (89-60*), @ASU (77-55), Utah (59-46*)

Zona is making their case here to be in the top tier with Duke and Kentucky (I'd round that out with Louisville and potentially Wisconsin). Losing this game - or even just barely winning - basically ends that talk. To keep this simple, that Utah "neutral site" game was played at the MGM Grand in Vegas. Arizona is better than Utah. Thus far, UNLV has beaten the mid-to-low level teams and gotten killed by the Pac-12 teams. That Temple win keeps looking better and better, but it doesn't look good enough.

Pick: Arizona -13 (and if you're teasing...)

#4 Louisville (-25) hosting Cal State Northridge, 7pm

Nope! You are most certainly not getting me to trust Rick Pitino here. Can't do it. Not picking this game.

#7 Villanova (-26.5) hosting NJIT, 7pm

Nope! You are most certainly not getting me to trust Jay Wright here. Can't do it. Not picking this game.

#9 Texas (-11) hosting Stanford, 7pm 
Notable wins for Texas: Iowa (71-57*), Cal (71-55*), @UConn (55-54), coming off a 78-68 home win over Long Beach State
Notable losses for Texas: 63-51 at Kentucky is their only loss
Notable wins for Stanford: UNLV (89-60*)
Notable losses for Stanford: Duke (70-59*), @Depaul (87-72), @BYU (79-77)

Bang! There's the other half of the Arizona teaser if you're into that. I think Texas wins easily because I don't think Stanford is that good this year. The Longhorns are obviously better at home than they are on the road, as they lost to Kentuky and barely beat UConn in their only two road games. But Stanford is not a great road team either - losing to BYU? Getting killed by Depaul? C'mon.

Pick: Texas -11 (and if you're teasing...)