Free NCAA Basketball Picks: Our Best Bets for March 9 (Archive)
The Atlantic-10 Conference Tournament begins with Saint Joseph’s and La Salle. Despite both of these teams being at the bottom of the conference, there is still value to find. Which team gets the job done today? Let’s see what the NCAAB odds for this matchup tell us!
Saint Joseph’s Hawks vs. La Salle Explorers
Wednesday, March 9, 2022 – 1:00 PM EST at Capital One Arena
The Saint Joseph's Hawks will look to live another day against the La Salle Explorers in the A-10 Tournament. La Salle defeated Saint Joseph's twice this season, winning one game by 11 and the other by one. In the most recent game, back on March 2, St. Joseph’s lost 49-48 after leading 39-24 in the second half.
The Hawks scored just 12 points in the entire second half and ended up losing that game. The chances that that happens again are very minimal. Saint Joseph's is known for its defense. The Hawks have held opponents to a 47.7 percent effective field goal percentage while limiting offensive rebounds to 24.2 percent.
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Saint Joseph's will rarely send teams to the line and has also limited teams to 31.8 percent from three and 47.7 percent from inside the arc. On the flip side, La Salle has struggled offensively, hitting just 32.3 percent from downtown, 48.2 percent from inside the arc, and 69.2 percent from the foul line.
The Hawks won’t force turnovers but should limit La Salle at the only thing that it’s good at, which is offensive rebounding. The Explorers are bringing down 29.8 percent offensive rebounds but again, Saint Joseph's has been stellar on the defensive glass. Plus, the Explorers also don’t get to the line at a high rate either.
Meanwhile, La Salle has been terrible defending, especially against the three. Opponents have hit 36.6 percent of threes against La Salle this season and, of course, Saint Joseph's loves to heave it up.
The Hawks have hit 33.8 percent of threes but are taking an extremely high volume of threes while scoring nearly 40 percent of their points from downtown. Saint Joseph's has turned the ball over 19.5 percent of the time, but La Salle also isn’t a major threat to earn a whole bunch of turnovers.
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From the foul line, Saint Joseph's has hit just 65.7 percent but should end up getting to the line more often than La Salle and ultimately will have more foul shots made in comparison to La Salle. La Salle has struggled to keep teams off the foul line at times, so there’s a good chance Saint Joseph's gets to taste the foul line a bit more.
Prediction
Saint Joseph's, like La Salle, won’t earn many second chances. Neither team will get to the line at a rapid pace. But overall, Saint Joseph's should be able to hold La Salle from the field. If shots fall from deep for the Hawks, it’s going to become a blowout quickly. For our NCAAB picks, this time, Saint Joseph's will hold.
NCAAB Pick: Saint Joseph's (-140) with BetOnline (visit our BetOnline 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.