Monday Quick Picks - Jan 4th

The Maniac is back for the New Year, ready to build on a winning first half of the season.

Here's a few quick picks for a decent slate of Monday night games

North Carolina -14 @ Charleston - The Tarheels snoozed through a closer-than-expected win over Rutgers last week. Roy Williams was visably unhappy. Not quite throw a random guy out of the arena pissed, but certainly unhappy. The Tarheels are so much bigger, so much deeper and so much more talented than Cremins' Cougars. I think Roy has them focused and ready to play and they simply overwhelm 'em tonight.

Pitt @ Cincinnati -4 - It's been a rough week in the Queen City. The Bearcats were emasculated in the Sugar Bowl; perhaps proving that, no, in fact they didn't quite belong. The Bungles humiliated themselves in the return to national TV, passing for ZERO yards against the Jets. Even Xavier lost a gut-wrenching double OT'er to Wake Forest yesterday. The lone bright spot? The Bearcats basketball team appears to be poised to return to the Tourney.

Pitt pulled off on of the few legit "upsets" of this young season, not just winning but winning BIG at Syracuse. Now the test for Dixon's young Panthers is to win a game in which they are not overwhelmingly underdogs. If you watched the game, you couldn't help but notice how Pitt absolutely caught fire from three-point range against Syracuses's matchup D. Cincinnati defends much differently, and there will be a totally different shot that will have to be made tonight. It will require more ball screens, more individual creativity and less stand-still shots.

I really like the Bearcats tonight, though their erratic shooting leaves every game on the schedule a little in doubt...

Alabama +0.5 @ Toledo - The Tide's record is subpar, but they looked real good in a few of those losses to elite opponents. Toledo is not elite, and I think the Tide will out-athlete them in a good road win heading into conference play.

Maniac's Season Record: 29-23-1 ATS

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