Sandwiches and Cupcakes

Professional handicappers don't just examinemoments in college basketball history. It was a
power rankings, stats and match-ups. There aregame the Mountaineers were up for, and they
many factors to examine, separately and as awon, 60-56.
group, when trying to identify winning edgesWhat stood out for me was the NEXT game.
against the spread. Let's talk about sandwiches.After flying back and forth across the country,
No, not ham on rye or P&J, but basketballWest Virginia had to play a real sandwich game,
sandwiches.this time against relative cupcake Marshall. The
This is when a team has several tough games onMarshall tilt was another non-conference game,
a schedule, and then out of the blue plays either ajust before West Virginia jumps back into Big
bad team or one that is out of conference. This isEast playing in succession, St. John's, Notre Dame,
where looking carefully at the schedule comes inCincinnati, No. 10 Pittsburgh and Georgetown.
handy. College basketball teams have been inWhat interest would West Virginia have in playing
conference play this month. However, sometimes7-9 Marshall, a team on a 3-game losing streak?
a team will have a non-conference game smackThere was even recent history to look at, too. A
in the middle of their schedule. There are all kindsyear ago in January, Marshall was a +13½
of reasons for this. Sometimes games aredog against West Virginia and not only covered
rescheduled, other times a team has an openbut WON the game, 59-55. Marshall doesn't have
date and needs to book a game, sometimesthe horses to run with mighty West Virginia, so
year's in advance, while other times teams havethey slowed the pace down. In addition, that was
local rivalry games that have to take place, evenMarshall's biggest game of the year, in a sense.
if it's not in conference.Remember that Marshall was 6-22 last season! In
This week I had a major play on Marshall whenshort, the Thundering Herd badly wanted to give
they were playing state rival West Virginia. Thistheir best effort, while West Virginia had far less
was a sandwich spot for the Mountaineers. Theyinterest. A year ago when facing Marshall, West
had already begun Big East play with consecutiveVirginia had coming up on deck BC, Notre Dame,
games against South Florida, No. 3 Villanova,Syracuse and UConn. And they played like they
Georgetown, Marquette and Providence. In fact,had little focus on Marshall.
the Mountaineers had won all those games andForget about the law of averages, folks. The
were ranked No. 9 in the country.sandwich spot made Marshall the play as a +16
Then, last Saturday, they stepped out ofdog, so my customers and I were all over it. I
conference play and took on UCLA. On the road.liked it even more when West Virginia center
That is something that catches the idea of a proKevin Pittsnogle guaranteed a win! Marshall won
handicapper. Here is an East Coast team rollingthe game 58-52 over ninth ranked West Virginia.
through its conference schedule, then all of aNotice that after the game, one Marshall player
sudden it has to fly all the way across thesaid, "After a guarantee like that, it's a good thing
country to play a non-conference game. First ofwe showed up." Yes, players and coaches are
all, that's a long road trip. Secondly, while it's awell aware of "guarantees" like that, which is why
non-conference tilt, it was not a game that Westcoaches in all sports often tell their players to
Virginia would take lightly. At the time, UCLA wasshut-up rather than give verbal fodder to the
ranked 16th in the nation, a good challenge for theopponent. Just as coaches are sensitive to verbal
Mountaineers. Also, it was at Pauley Pavilion,fodder, good handicappers are aware of
playing under all those national championshipsandwiches.
banners on a court that featured so many great