Bruins While I backed up no trucks, I did play UCLA +8 tonight. Montgomery has never been a proponent of conference tournaments, and with the regular season title in his pocket he's spoken of playing a lot of people and trying to get his banged up roster a little bit healthier for the NCAA's. UCLA, on the other hand, is playing with great desperation as they try to salvage something positive out of this dreadful season. Reeves Nelson came back from his eye injury and played like a man possessed, very physical and obviously badly wanting to win.
This line seems fair based on the relative performance of both teams. Cal was a 3.5-favorite at UCLA, where they won big, and a 14-point favorite at home, where they were upset by the Bruins. Both are roughly equivalent to an 8-point spread on a neutral court. Using in-conference stats suggests this is a pretty fair line as well. But one team wants it much more than the other. With Nelson back and Montgomery not caring a whole lot about this game, +8 seems like a solid play.
Incidentally, switching back and forth between the Big East tournament, the Big 12 tourney, and the Pac Ten tourney last night was like switching betweent he Premier League, the Italian League, and an MLS preseason game. Or at least what I would picture them to be like if I didn't care about soccer about as much as Pac Ten fans care about their conference tournament.
