A quick return to the court awaits the George Washington Colonials and the Maryland Terrapins who’ll renew an old rivalry in College Park on Thursday’s college basketball betting card.
Let’s break down the NCAAB odds for this matchup.
George Washington Colonials vs. Maryland Terrapins
Thursday, November 11, 2021 – 06:30 PM EST at XFINITY Center
One way or another, the dreams of an undefeated season come to an end for either George Washington or Maryland after both sides picked up a win in season openers on Tuesday, and did so in a similar fashion.
The Colonials enjoyed some easy sailing early against St. Francis (PA) but had to hold on late for a 75-72 decision over the Red Flash. Likewise, the Terrapins built a 25-point lead against Quinnipiac and then got a bit sloppy in an 83-69 decision.
Conventional wisdom says Maryland emerges from the matchup with a perfect record still intact, since the Terrapins are a top 25 team in both conventional polls and George Washington is way down in the 200s on the Pomeroy Ratings. The Terrapins are 12/1 on the college basketball futures to win the Big Ten, while the Colonials are picked to finish back in the Atlantic 10 pack.
Terps and Colonials Collide for the First Time Since 2013
The numbers at the top sportsbooks also strongly favor Maryland to move to 2-0 while George Washington falls to a level 1-1 on the young campaign.
BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review) is selling the Terrapins as think 18.5-point chalk with 137½ for the scoreboard target.
Despite never having been conference foes, there’s a great deal of history between the Colonials and Terrapins thanks to their campuses being about 12 miles apart as the crow flies. There were even a few seasons that they met twice on the schedule, and Thursday’s tilt serves as the 68th meeting with Maryland holding a 36-31 all-time advantage.
It has been nearly eight years since the Colonials and Terrapins last met, and the previous 10 clashes took place on neutral courts as Thursday’s tilt is the first one in College Park since January 1979. The December 2013 contest took place at Capital One Arena in Washington DC, and George Washington pulled off a mild 77-75 upset as a 3-point underdog. The victory was the Colonials’ third in the last four matchups, and also the fourth ‘over’ in the last five.
Can Transfers Help G-Dub Surprise in A-10?
George Washington broke away from an early 6-all tie with St. Francis on Tuesday and took a 39-26 point lead into the locker room. The Red Flash came out of the break and immediately started to peck away at the Colonials’ lead, but suffered about a 5-minute scoring drought midway through the second half when George Washington rebuilt the advantage to 13 with 5:30 to go.
St. Francis still wouldn’t go away, and the Colonials were fortunate in the end that the Red Flash shot a pathetic 1-for-9 from beyond the arc.
The late collapse cost Colonial backers who were giving up 6.5 on the college basketball odds, but George Washington head coach Jamion Christian had to like what he saw from his two big transfers. Brendan Adams, a grad student from UConn, led the way with 22 points while sinking 4-of-6 from 3-point range, and sophomore Joe Bamisile from Va Tech added 20.
Adams and Bamisile stepped up at a good time since James Bishop had an off night with a 2-for-13 shooting performance. Bishop led the Colonials in scoring last season (19.1 ppg), and was one of the few known commodities George Washington had entering the season along with double-double machine Ricky Lindo Jr.
Wahab Gives Terps Much-Needed Presence in Paint
Mark Turgeon isn’t happy with how his club closed the final 10 minutes of Tuesday’s win over Quinnipiac, nor was he satisfied with the 6-for-17 shooting from beyond the arc. Still, he’s got to be excited about how his squad dominated in the paint, something that was sorely missing from the Terrapins’ surprise run into the NCAA tournament last year.
Credit the decision Qudus Wahab made to transfer into College Park from Georgetown. The 6-11 junior was a force on both ends against the Bobcats, leading Maryland with 17 points and coming away with six boards and a couple of blocks.
Wahab was part of a huge transfer haul for the Terrapins, with Fatts Russell from Rhode Island and Pavlo Dziuba from Arizona State two more additions.
The huge influx of transfers Maryland scored should team very well with returning starters Eric Ayala and Donta Scott, and the Terrapins will be a force in the Big Ten. But tonight, my free NCAAB pick is to take the points.
NCAAB Pick: George Washington +19 (-109) at GTbets (visit our GTbets Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
