Both these teams come in with the same 9-3 record, but are they really equal as the spread suggests? The home-court edge is nothing becase of the empty arena. BYU’s leading scorer Alex Barcello (16.3 points per game) shoots 57.9 percent from the field and a crazy 60.0 from 3-point land. The senior is 30-of-50 from downtown. The defense has also been aided by 7’3” Purdue transfer Matt Haarms (11.2 points and 1.8 blocks per game). Saint Mary’s has lost two of its last three, the last being a bad home loss to Santa Clara (+9). BYU is the play.

BYU got off to a slow start in its last game against Gonzaga with the Cougars going down 20-2 before they knew what hit them. But then they played square the rest of the way in an 86-69 loss that pushed +17 and stayed Under 163 points. Before that, they went Over in five straight as they scored at least 70 points in all of them. The BYU average score is 78-68. This total suggests Saint Mary’s will be controlling the pace. I bet they wouldn’t and took the Over.