West Virginia Mountaineers at Pittsburgh Panthers Betting Odds

Opening Line: WVU -2.5 / Pitt +2.5 O/U 126.5

Time: 9 PM EST Friday February 11, 2010 on ESPN

Tonight in an important Big East match up the 23rd ranked Pittsburgh Panthers host the 4th ranked West Virginia Mountaineers. WVU is 3rd in the conference trailing Syracuse by 2.5 games and they are only 1 game in front of Pitt in conference play. The Mountaineers lost their last game, which snapped their 6 game winning streak while Pitt has stopped the bleeding winning their last 2 games after losing 4 of their last 5.

This season Pitt is 13-1 at home and 11-8-2 ATS and West Virginia is 6-2 on the road and 9-13 ATS.

Both teams played on Monday night, but with different results, as WVU lost to Villanova 82-75 while Pitt played out of conference crushing Robert Morris 77-53.

This game is called the Brickyard Brawl and while WVU beat Pitt at home this season they look to avoid their 5th straight road loss to the Panthers.

In the win over Pitt on February 3rd there was a brawl in the game and Mountaineer fans threw objects on the court, so there will be a raucous crowd in this game, as Panthers look to exact some revenge over their biggest rivals.

Pitt has a solid defense only allowing an average of 60.3 ppg and they will be facing a WVU offense that is solid averaging 73.8 ppg. Pitt may have to win with their defense, as their offense is not a high scoring one only averaging 67.8 ppg.

This match up could not be between more contrasting teams. Pitt is led by their backcourt with four guards averaging in double figures and WVU is led by their frontcourt with 3 forwards averaging in double figures.

The Panthers will have to shoot well from the outside to win this game, especially guards Ashton Gibbs (16.5 ppg) and Brad Wanamaker (12.3 ppg), and the Mountaineers have to score in the paint and win the battle of the boards to win.

The Pitt frontcourt of C Gary McGhee (7.3 ppg 6.8 rpg) and C Nasir Robinson (6.7 ppg 5.8 rpg) are not the focal point of the Panthers' offense, but they have to rebound well tonight.

The WVU forward trio of Da'Sean Butler (17.1 ppg 6 rpg), Kevin Jones (14 ppg 7.6 rpg), and Devin Ebanks (11.2 ppg 8.6 rpg) can win this game inside by scoring easy buckets in the paint and by dominating the glass.

WVU is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games as a favorite of 0.5-6.5 and has an Over record of 5-2 in their last 7 games as a favorite of 0.5-6.5.

Pitt is 6-1-2 ATS in their last 9 home games, -1 ATS in their last 5 games as an underdog, and has an 7-3 in their last 10 home games against teams with a winning road record.

In the last 5 games in Pittsburgh between these 2 teams the total has gone Under 4 times.

Our Selection : The Panthers will have revenge on their mind after getting blown out by Mountaineers earlier this month and the linesmaker has been kind making West Virgina 3 point road favorites. We'll side here with the home team who has lost only 1 game at home this season. Take Pittsburgh +3