Sportsline

Is Tuesday night's road contest a must win game for the Cowboys?

It's a rematch of the great '77 Finals tonight at Portland! ...

We hope no one bought tickets for this one expecting to see Luka and SGA...

Should the Warriors consider contacting Rick Barry for some offensive help?...

How will Duke respond coming off a loss to rival UNC?...

BYU has lost four straight...

These clubs are plagued by inconsistency. ...

Chelsea's last four EPL matches have gone over. ...

Gui Santos looks to continue his recent scoring surge. …

The under is always worth a look with UNI, which leads the nation in scoring defense (60 ppg) and in slowest pace, all evident in Friday's slow-drip 61-49 win over Bradley at Cedar Falls. Six of the the last seven Panthers games have featured scorelines that make Ben Jacobson smile, as only one of those exceeded 130, and four of them haven't gotten past 115. The exception was the 81-76 upset Murray State when UNI hit an uncommon 57% from the floor, led by 27 points from G Trey Campbell. The Racers' 86 ppg offense would rather run, but Jacobson's ability to slow the pace, especially on the MVC trail, suggests this one moves slower than the first meeting. Play UNI-Murray State Under.

FanDuel at -125. Cameron Johnson started slow to begin his Nuggets tenure, but came on strong before an injury sidelined him for six weeks. Now back, and built up to 27 minutes, he should come close to the 31 minutes per game he averages this season. Overall, Johnson is over this line in 12/16 full games without Aaron Gordon. And this is a solid spot against the Cavs who do allow spot up shooting at an above average clip.

All system go in Cleveland now that James Harden (23 points on Saturday at Sacto) has made his Cavs debut, though F Evan Mobley remains out. Tonight in Denver, however, looms tougher than the last three games on this road trip vs. injury-depleted or distracted sides. At least it seems as if Denver isn't injury-depleted tonight, as long as Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray play, as expected, though swingman Peyton Watson will be sidelined for a few weeks. Since the Joker's return, the Nuggets have been in pretty tough schedule-wise, losing three straight vs. a brutal stretch of Thunder, Pistons, and Knicks before blowing away the Bulls on Saturday with an explosive 39-16 surge in the 4th Q, paced by Murray's 28 points. Play Nuggets

I don't have a good feeling tonight about my Wildcats, but will NEVER pick against them with an official play on here. Instead, with two top-40 defensive teams going head-to-head, I'm looking at the under tonight. Arizona has gone under in five of their last six games, while Kansas has played to the under in six of seven. I see this game being played in the low-70s at most, so I would bet it down to 150.

Yep, it's a risk, picking against an undefeated, top-ranked team on February 9 in an effective pick 'em spot. Still, if Arizona is to lose a game before the Big 12 Tourney, it's probably either tonight at the Phog or February 21 at Houston. There are no holes to shoot at for Tommy Lloyd's Cats save perhaps some scraps on the conference trail, where they haven't had a real romp since January 3 at Utah. The Jayhawks are a tough hurdle, however, especially at home and especially with flashy frosh Darryn Peterson (20.5 ppg) now featuring regularly after missing time earlier in the season and keying the current seven-game KU surge. Might this be where the 23-game Wildcats win streak ends? Play Kansas.

So short of me having a heart attack on Monday -- always a possibility as I consume an unhealthy amount of gravy, and it don't matter the flavor; it just makes everything better -- the Monday newsletter will be odds on the Kickoff Game opponent for the SB winner and this game. Arizona is one of two unbeatens left but, yep, I think goes down. Only the fifth time in the past 30 years that Kansas is a home dog. I don't want to give away all my fun stats here but let's just say Bill Self NEVER loses on Big Monday.