Bruce's Picks (8 Live)
Cal Baptist has taken a few losses on this long road trip, but only vs. potent and ranked BYU have the Lancers really lost contact with any foe. A recent win at Oregon State and scrappy covers at Colorado and Utah suggest CBU might be worthy of its favorite status in the WAC. Rick Croy's squad returned all of its starters from last year (a rarity these days in college hoops) and G Dominique Daniels (19.9 ppg) continues to excel, pumping in 31 vs. the Utes in his last outing. Dan Monson's EWU might be better than its 2-7 record suggests as it has been in fairly tough, but defensive lapses in several of the losses have proven costly. Play CBU
Any NBA "go-with" list at the moment likely includes the Mavs, with wins in four of five as Jason Kidd has started to push the right buttons. Getting Anthony Davis back and in a healthy state has been one of the positives; AD is just off of a smashing 29-point effort in last Saturday's comfy win over the powerful Rockets. AD had scored 32 earlier in December in a win over the Nuggets Meanwhile, 6-9 Duke rookie Cooper Flagg has picked up the pace this month and is scoring better than 20 ppg in December. Granted, Brooklyn is not as much of a pushover these days and has won three of four, but a favorable recently slate has helped the results. Play Mavs
The correlation is too strong...Memphis has surged since a Morant went down with his calf injury. The Griz have won seven of nine, all minus Morant, its best surge of the season, with terrific balance reflected in five different leading scorers across the past five games. Emerging recently has been Washington State rookie wing Cedric Coward, who scored 23 in last Friday's win over the Clippers. Another reason Morant and his distracting presence haven't been missed is that his numbers had tailed off dramatically before the injury' his 35.9% FG shooting is well the worst for any season of his career in which he's been near 47% from the floor. Meanwhile, the Jazz are slumping again with two 30+-point losses in a row. Play Grizzlies
For the Blackhawks, any slump seems more isolated. Not necessarily for the Blues. Chicago sagged at the end of its recent road trip, whipped by the Kings and Ducks by a combined 12-1, but those were the only two truly bad efforts the past couple of weeks since a 9-3 loss to Buffalo on November 21. Chicago recovered smartly on Wednesday in a 3-0 win over the Rangers as Spencer Knight (in the nets again tonight) stopped all 21 shots he faced. For the Blues, the malaise has mostly lasted since later October, and consecutive heavy losses to the Bruins and Preds by a combined 12-4 suggest breakdowns beyond iffy work in goal from Jordan Binnington or Joel Hofer (in the net tonight). Play Blackhawks
We've used Queens and over several times together in the past few years and Grant Leonard's go-go team is still performing in the same uptempo style. The Royals are popping once again at a near 84 ppg clip, shooting better than 48% from the floor and nearly 38% beyond the arc. Help from 6-9 Georgia Southern transfer Avantae Parker (10.4 ppg) has provided an interior scoring presence that has helped Queens spread out the floor better ion halfcourt sets, and taking advantage is bombs-away G Chris Ashby, hitting better than 41% of his triples. Meanwhile, SCSU is winless at 0-10 and absorbing some heavy beatings while allowing 88.2 ppg, ranking 355th nationally. Play SCSU-Queens Over
Last Friday's 79-74 win over Cincy in the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout was the latest indictor that Richard Pitino has Xavier on the ascent. FAU transfer F Tre Carroll's 30 points was another reminder of the match-winners on Pitino's Musketeers, who have improved 3-point shooting to near 37% after the X was hovering around 25% earlier in the season. Well-traveled G Richie Anderson III also scored 28 in a recent cruise past St Francis-Pa. Meanwhile, not sure how much progress Cuonzo Martin is making at Mizzou State, as the Bears have taken some lumps away from Springfield, such as the 98-74 loss at Tulsa last Saturday. Cuonzo's team also isn't helping itself with subpar 29.7% shooting beyond the arc. Play Xavier.
We can't resist getting Florida at this sort of a price, even plus a goal. The Panthers seem to have righted their ship with wins in three straight, including last night in Salt lake City over the Mammoth. The offense has started to percolate, scoring 15 times (including an OT goal) in the three-game uptick. Paul Maurice has tabbed Daniel Tarasov to start in goal after stopping 20 of 21 shots in a 4-1 win over the Islanders on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Ave are still scary but they have lost games lately (3 of 7) and have been involved in three OT/shootouts, plus another one-goal game, in the past two weeks. Play Panthers on Puck Line