March 13 CBB Lines

If the Iowa State-Memphis sports betting odds don’t make much sense to you, you’re not going to be alone.

Memphis enters this game undefeated while coming off of a fairly tough run of games. They beat Saint Louis by 15, they knocked off Western Kentucky by 12 despite trailing by 10 early on in that game and on Wednesday night, they beat up on Virginia Tech, 69-61, in Barclays despite getting nothing out of star freshman Emoni Bates.

That’s about what we expected them to do.

Iowa State, on the other hand, has been something of a relevation. They beat Oregon State during the first week of the season. On Wednesday night, they beat Xavier in the semifinals of the Preseason NIT, and did so pretty handily. They are currently sitting at 5-0 on the season, and are looking more and more like a team that has the potential to be able to make a little bit of noise in the Big 12.

T.J. Otzelberger can coach, that’s for sure.

So where does the value lie tonight?

Longtime college basketball writer Rob Dauster, the co-founder of The Field of 68 Network is here to break down the game between Memphis and Iowa State.

IOWA STATE vs. MEMPHIS BETTING ODDS

GAME TIME: 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2
MONEYLINE: Memphis -715 ML, Iowa State +500 ML
SPREAD: Memphis -12
TOTAL: 140.5

IOWA STATE vs. MEMPHIS PREDICTION

There may not be a team in college basketball this season that has more intrigue built up around them than this Memphis group. Penny Hardaway leads a coaching staff that includes Larry Brown and Rasheed Wallace. Emoni Bates is the most hyped 17 year old in the sport. Jalen Duren is a potential top five pick. And it’s Memphis! There is always something wild happening around the Memphis program.

And through six games this season, the hype appears justified. The Tigers are 5-0 on the season. They’ve beaten two good mid majors in Saint Louis and Western Kentucky, and they just knocked off Virginia Tech on Wednesday night despite the fact that Bates was struggling. They are, simply put, an elite defensive program, as they were last season, and the season prior.

This year, their offensive numbers look better than what we have seen in the past two years, but I do think that it is worth nothing this: Memphis cannot protect the ball. There are just ten teams in the entire sport that have turned the ball over on a higher percentage of their offensive possessions than Memphis has this season.

And Iowa State?

They have forced turnovers on more than 25 percent of their defensive possessions. They forced 17 turnovers against Xavier. They forced 14 turnovers against Oregon State. I expect them to force something in that range tonight against Memphis as well, and that’s why I like the Cyclones and the points here. I don’t know how much they are going to be able to get done in the half court tonight, but I do think that they will be able to get enough in transition and off of turnovers to be able to keep this thing close.