BURN THE HORSE
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| UALR (2-1) vs. Eastern Michigan (1-1) 6 p.m. tonight Ysplanti, Michigan Vegas says: EMU by 1.5 |
Eastern Michigan is a tough team to figure out. They played well in their opener to beat Illinois-Chicago at home. Then they went on the road at Texas Southern and got drilled in Game 2. Texas Southern isn’t a typical SWAC team. They’re pretty good. But we expected a much better showing from the Eagles in their trip south.
That brings us to tonight’s game. UALR dropped its opener at Tulsa, but came back to win home games against Northwestern State and IUPUI. All three of those opponents figure to be better than Eastern Michigan this season.
It’s not clear what the identity of the Eagles will be this season. Darrell Lampley leads them with 13.5 points per game. He’s a 5-10 and he’s made only 9 of 24 fieldoals, including 5 of 10 three-pointers. The Eagles are only shooting 29 percent (10 of 34) from three-point range this season.
It should also be noted that among the transfers sitting out this season is former UA-Fayetteville forward Glenn Bryant.
Here’s the key. Eastern Michigan is averaging 15.5 offensive rebounds per game. UALR, by contrast, averages 9.0. UALR has to keep Eastern Michigan off the glass to win this game.
Vegas is back on board for only the second time in four games this season. It's been a moving line all day. It started at EMU by 1.5; dropped to EMU by 1 and now is back up to EMU by 2. In all of those scenarios, UALR is the underdog again. The Trojans are 0-1 as the underdog this season.
Tonight's predictions:
- Real Time RPI (3-0): UALR 72, Eastern Michigan 67
- Jeff Sagarin (2-1): UALR 70, Eastern Michigan 68
- CBS Sportsline (2-1) UALR 64, Eastern Michigan 63
- The Sports Network (2-1): UALR 65, Eastern Michigan 60
http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cbask/scores/live/preview.aspx?id=59797
