Pinnacle  -2 -103 BET365 -2 -110 SportInteraction -2 -110 BetOnline -2 -109

Posted at 5:00 PM EST.

INCARNATE WORD -2 -103 over Houston Baptist

8:30 PM EST. If you saw this line as we did and could not see a path to Incarnate Word having any appeal spotting points, you were right. The market has taken a stand on this game between arguably the two worst teams in college hoops. Incarnate Wood has played some stiff competition (Baylor, Texas Tech, Purdue and Texas) along the way. Even if they did get whacked by those ranked foes, they have seen what the best of the best has to offer. We are going to double down that those lumps against some of the top programs in the country are going to serve Ryne Smith’s Cardinals well here both and in conference play in the future.

Houston Baptist opened as a 3½-point pooch and the market apparently saw something it liked because that number is coming down. We’ve looked at the Huskies and other than the fact they are playing Incarnate Word, we don’t see the appeal. Houston Baptist got bounced in the first round of the Southland Basketball Tip-Off (just like IW) and it is riding a four game losing streak of its own. One of those losses was to the Cardinals (60-50), in the prestigious 7th place game of that pre-conference play “tournament”.

That we were on the Cardinals the other night makes it easy to pull the trigger on this fade on the “efficient market”. IW is battle tested, Houston Baptist is not. Oh by the way, in that game between these two schools on a neutral site just eight days ago, the Cardinals were 2-point chalk. Now they are the same price on their home floor. That’s an underlay.

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