Appalachian MBB @ Texas

The final score may hint at a close battle that eventually swayed toward the home team. It was that game, but it was masked by a dreadful offensive performance by the Mountaineers, who fell 67-55 to Texas.

The Apps shot a tidy 30% from the field for the entire game. Appalachian was able to hang around thanks to knocking down 12 three-pointers, but only managed to hit six other field goals in the game. Texas recorded 15 blocks which was part of the reason for a poor shooting night by the Apps. 

Outside a game high 20 points from Frank Eaves, Appalachian failed to develop a second scorer. Emarius Logan chipped in 8 points and 6 rebounds. Sharp shooting specialist Matt O’Boyle knocked down two three pointers in limited action. 

Fortunately, App was able to cover the spread, which seemed like a rather easy play with the line sitting at 20 points. The pick was made with this tweet. The ATS win puts Appalachian at 3-2 on the year. 

Appalachian faces Charlotte in Boone on Saturday, Dec 19th. 

Men’s Basketball @ Tulane

The Mountaineers suffered a setback to Hampton on Friday evening, falling 82-61 to Hampton. The Pirates are a veteran bunch, having won a game in the NCAA tournament a year ago. 

The Mountaineers were in foul trouble most of the game and were victims of a near seven minute scoring drought in the first half. Frank Eaves led the Apps with 22 points. 

There was no line for the game, which makes that the second time in three games in which Vegas was caught snoozing. The Apps are 0-1 against the spread, as am I, taking the Apps to cover against Furman. 

This afternoon, Tulane sits as a 6.5 point favorite after the line opened at 6. Tulane is 1-2 on the season, with losses to Alabama A&M in overtime and Southern. The Green Wave knocked off Drake on Monday in overtime. Tulane’s offense has improved each game, improving their points scored in each game. 

The Apps have struggled mightily on defense. Opponents have managed to shoot 43% from the field and 43% from behind the arc in three games. App will have to dig deep to find wind to turn in a decent defensive performance after being on the road since Thursday. 

The Pick: Tulane -6.5 

Men’s Basketball vs Furman

Appalachian hosts the Paladins in a non-conference matchup Tuesday night from the Holmes Convocation Center. Furman claimed a ten point win over Presbyterian last Friday while the Mountaineers downed Jacksonville by eight on Saturday. 

The Apps were lead by Chris Burgess’ 18 points in the win over JU while Emarius Logan added 13 in the victory. Furman might be without Stephen Croone who led the Paladins in scoring last season. Croone is dealing with a thumb injury. 
Appalachian is a 3.5 point favorite. No line was available for the Jacksonville game. The official pick is for Appalachian -3.5 considering Furman only managed 63 points in their first outing and App looks to improve on a 76 point output in which they missed a lot of easy shots. 

App Men look to sweep Bobcats

It has been a long season for the Mountaineers in Jim Fox’s first season as head coach. Wins have been scarce, sometimes coming in streaks, and that is exactly how Appalachian hopes to finish the season. Prior to last Saturday’s win over first place UL-Monroe, Appalachian had not won a game in three weeks, dating back to a 65-62 win over Troy on February 7th. 

The Mountaineers won four games in a row in January in an eight day span. However, that streak was preceded by a four game losing streak and followed by back to back losses. All in all, seven of Appalachian’s ten wins were split by a three-game and four-game winning streaks. 

Throughout the season, the trend in Mountaineer wins has been the play of Frank Eaves. In each and every Appalachian win, Eaves has been the leading scorer for the Mountaineers and has averaged 23 points per game in those contests. In the previous game against Texas State, Eaves scored a career high 31 points. 

This season, Appalachian is 10-15 against the spread. The Mountaineers have been better on the road this season than in the Holmes Convocation Center. The Apps are only 3-6 ATS at home, with all wins coming against Sun Belt competition. Conversely, Appalachian has straight up wins in all of those matchups, against South Alabama, Georgia State and UL-Monroe. 

Appalachian is currently a 1.5 point underdog in tonight’s matchup against Texas State. Texas State was a 7 point favorite earlier in the year when they lost to the Mountaineers. The Bobcats are also 3-6 on the road against the spread and 1-7 ATS when the total is in the 120’s. App seems like a safe pick getting a couple points at home. 

UALR looks for rare road win

1:12 PM: @bigCasu: App is a slight favorite tonight by a point. ML gives a better layout to UALR. Wouldn’t be shocked if it moved a half point to lose the push

6:59 PM: @bigCasu: UALR is awful on the road. So I am gonna grab this one point for the Apps. Would be bigger if it wasn’t our worst game of season earlier.

8:20 PM: @bigCasu: Big difference from last meeting. App scored 46, while today, building on 37 before half.

8:23 PM: @bigCasu: Both teams shooting over 50% at half. Apps threes cancelled by UALR free throws.

8:31 PM: Burgess with 16 first half points, mainly because Frank Eaves saddled with foul trouble. Eaves hasn’t scored tonight, which has to be the first time he hasn’t scored in the first half this season. Didn’t check, but it totally makes sense.

Apps visit Lafayette

3:27 PM: @bigCasu: Apps hanging in close as an 11.5 point dog. No much movement. This might be one I struggle with until right before tipoff.

7:11 PM: @bigCasu: Another .5 point comes off the App spread to 11.

7:57 PM: @bigCasu: Louisiana has covered one double digit spread this year, which was a home win over Troy. Overall 8-8 ATS.

8:02 PM: Official pick: https://twitter.com/bigcasu/status/563502822269157376

Post game: Appalachian struggled from the field in the second half after tying the score at 50, to fall by fifteen points at Louisiana.

The Mountaineers trailed by 7 points at halftime after allowing the Cajuns to shoot over 60% from the field in the first frame. Jacob Lawson scored ten points in the first half, but was held scoreless in the second half. Chris Burgess sparked the run to tie the score at 50 in the second half, as he scored all of his points in the second half.

Only five Mountaineers scored on the night with eleven players logging minutes. Starters Dustin Clarke and Michael Obacha were held scoreless the entire night.

Louisiana covered the eleven point spread as Appalachian struggled to score in the second half, shooting only 32% from the field. The Cajuns went to the free throw line eleven more times than the Mountaineers, accounting for a ten point advantage at the stripe.

Our picks fall to 10-6 (.625) on the year against the spread.

Mountaineers squeak by Texas State

Appalachian was led by a career high 31 points by Frank Eaves en route to their fourth straight win over the Texas State Bobcats 64-58 on Saturday evening in San Marcos.

It was another ugly win for the Mountaineers despite Eaves’ effort. First year head coach Jim Fox has quickly learned that his team can’t score 70 points a game every night and expect to win. Defense has been the key to the four game winning streak. The Bobcats shot 36.8% from the field and connected on only three of their seventeen three point attempts.

Eaves with the only Mountaineer in double digits although Jacob Lawson chipped in nine points off the bench and Tommy Spagnola scored six and grabbed another half dozen rebounds.

Appalachian entered the game as a 7.5 point underdog, but was able to secure another big road cover with the win. I took the Mountaineers with this tweet Appalachian improves to 0-0 on the season ATS and our record also improves to 10-5

Apps fall late at Alabama

Appalachian could not hold a two point lead at halftime and fell to Alabama on Sunday. Tommy Spagnola turned in a strong double-double with 18 points and ten rebounds. Dustin Clarke and Frank Eaves both chipped in with thirteen points and a trio of three pointers each.

The Mountaineers had a chance to win in the closing seconds. Alabama had a foul to give and did so with three seconds left. Appalachian had a baseline inbounds play drawn up for Frank Eaves, who rushed the shot and missed everything. Eaves’s defender got in the air, and had a chance to draw a foul on the three point attempt or dribble to his left for an uncontested look.

Appalachian was spotted 18.5 points going into the game and cruised to a road cover. The Mountaineers have been good over the years on the road against marginal teams from the power conferences. This tweet secured my pick of the Mountaineers, which improves my picks to 5-1 on the season.

Hofstra visits App State Men

The Mountaineers survived on Thursday to beat Jacksonville by a score of 67-56. The game was littered with 51 combined fouls called on the night which provided for 62 free throw attempts between the two teams.

Appalachian led almost the entirety of the game, never surrendering after it took a 9-7 lead with 17:13 to play in the first half. The Mountaineers led by ten points at the break and pushed their lead to twelve in the second half. The Dolphins wouldn’t give up, cutting the Mountaineer lead to four on five different occasions in the final half.

Appalachian tallied four different players in double figures, with Frank Eaves leading the way with 18 points. Jake Babic added 13 points and five rebounds. Chris Burgess and Dustin Clarke chipped in ten points each.

For the game, five different Mountaineers combined to hit nine three pointers in the contest. Clarke, Burgess, Eaves and Babic hit two each while Tab Hamilton hit one off the bench.

Jacob Lawson served a one game suspension for a violation of team rules that stemmed from missing a class.

No spread was available for the game. That is common with schools from low-major conferences. Some books marked the game as a PK, but we won’t count that in our yearly standings. Today, Hofstra is 6 point favorite which seems to be an appropriate line. In each of the Mountaineers five games, their shooting percentage has improved from the field and behind the arc. This will be the fourth game this season that Appalachian is an underdog, but the first time they have a lined game at home this season. Hofstra has not lost this year against the spread. I think 6 points is plenty for Hofstra to cover in this game.

Men’s Basketball hosts Hampton

Last time out, Appalachian pulled the quietest upset in its recent basketball history with a slim victory over Virginia Tech. While most of the Mountaineer fans were glued to football game with Lafayette, Appalachian was outhustling the Hokies. Appalachian dominated on both ends of the glass, holding a 19-8 advantage of the offensive end and a 42-27 edge on the defensive glass.

Frank Eaves hit the game-winning jumper with one second on the clock after Virginia Tech could only manage to tie the game on the free throw line with ten seconds to play. The Hokies hit the first free throw to tie the game, but were called for a lane violation on the second attempt, which set up Eaves and his game winner.

We were a little bit too busy preparing for football festivities to check the line and eventually make a pick. Needless to say, Virginia Tech was favored in this game and the Mountaineers covered easily. That puts the Mountaineers at 1-2 against the spread this season, while our picks remain at 1-1 after “failing” to make a pick. Likely we would have taken Virginia Tech, and would have missed.

After getting his first win of his career on the road, Jim Fox and his Mountaineers will open the home slate of the schedule tonight against Hampton. The MEAC school is 1-3 on the year with a win over Alcorn State, and losses that include Syracuse, Iowa and North Dakota State.

Currently there is no line for the game, as is often the case when low-major opponents are involved. In the event that the bookies post one closer to gametime, you can catch the pick at my twitter account, @bigcasu