Editor’s Note: Guest post by Hayden King
Week 11 Recap
As we enter conference tournament time, I’ve picked 206 games this season, winning 143 of them for a 69% clip. The goal for this weekend is to get past the 70% mark, and I think we have more than enough potential as things are starting to clear up.
Last week was my highest win total of the season, going 15-3 on 18 picks. Pretty happy with the weekend, but two of the losses I’ll address here. I’ll address my UMass loss in my Week 11 Games of the Week Recap.
I picked Bucknell over Lafayette, and this is my one takeaway: Neither team will win the Patriot League. Although Lafayette beat Bucknell by 1, both teams had way too many gaps to be able to compete with Army, Loyola, or Boston.
With that, Lafayette showed up and showed out behind two monster performances for league players of the week. Shout out Charlie Cunniffe and James Turco for their performances.
I also picked Jacksonville to beat Air Force, and boy am I happy I lost this pick. I thought Jacksonville would run away with the ASUN title, and Utah could be in the mix. However, with Air Force pulling out the HUGE win, I think this conference is wide open.
Wins for the week included: Penn State, Michigan, DU, Loyola, Cornell, Richmond, Boston, Villanova, Notre Dame, Penn, Princeton, Virginia, Hopkins, Army, Utah
Week 11 Games of the Week: Recap
I loved my Games of the Week for Week 11, and ended up placing a parlay as well as individual picks for each of these games. Ended up going 2-1, meaning the parlay lost. However, got a pretty good pay back on the other two.
I correctly projected Michigan over Ohio State for ML. One thing I referenced was Michigan has one of the best faceoff units in the country, and they showed that on Saturday winning 29 out of 37 at the X for 78%.
On top of that, I mentioned Josh Zawada would be a nuisance to this Ohio State team, and he was notching 3 goals and 1 assist on the day for 4 points. He wasn’t the star of this Michigan offense though… Michael Boehm was.
Boehm had 8 goals on 10 shots, which is INSANE efficiency. These two teams will square off again this weekend for the B1G Tournament, and I’m guaranteeing another Michigan win.
I also took Hopkins/Maryland +2 spread for Hopkins, meaning Hop could either win or lose by less than 2 goals. I wanted this pick because I thought it would allow wiggle room, but I should’ve just trusted my gut.
Hopkins is back, and damn does it feel good to see the Blue Jays dominating again. They won 12-11 behind an impressive 3rd quarter where they outscored Maryland 6-2. Loving what Hop and Coach Milliman are bringing as we enter the postseason.
Finally, my loss of the week was picking UMass over St. Joseph’s. UMass was an underdog, I thought it was a tossup game, but I believe UMass has more consistency than St. Joseph’s.
I still believe that, and I’m convinced UMass is a better team after rewatching the film. St. Joseph’s pulled out the win 11-10 in regulation, which equaled their lowest goals scored in a game for the season.
I would probably trust big names like Levi Anderson and Carter Page more than the offensive unit at UMass in a close game, but I’d do anything to see this game played again and see the result. Tough loss, but UMass is bringing some strength this year.
Week 12 Games of the Week
Rather than doing the parlay format for this week, I’m going to give my Week 12 Games of the Week based on the best odds. These are not locks, so take them individually if you’re betting. Going to try and take 3 shots at favorable odds so we come out of the weekend happy!
First up, I’m loving the odds for Loyola over Lehigh ML at +110. Remember when Loyola beat Maryland and Hopkins to start the season? That team is still in there, but who knows how deep it has gotten repressed.
Lehigh has a good team too and I have no knock on their season. Led by one of the best faceoff men in the country, they’re almost guaranteed to win the battle at the X and lead in possession time.
I’m really liking Loyola for this final game of the regular season though, and I think they might be able to dominate Lehigh due to their incredible ball movement. Going to be a great game that gives us some insight into the forthcoming Patriot League tournament.
Next up, I’m linking Virginia +1.5 spread over Notre Dame, currently at -155. Virginia won this game earlier in the season, but I still don’t like betting against Notre Dame. This will allow us to cash out if Virginia wins, or loses by 1 goal.
They will control the faceoff X, but Notre Dame should be better in just about every other category. I do think Notre Dame could end up winning this matchup, but the spread opportunity is a great odd for the weekend.
Finally, I love Yale vs. Harvard Under 29.5 goals currently set at -115. I’ve talked about it plenty, but Gerry Byrne (head coach of Harvard) is a defensive mind, and does a fantastic job keeping offenses off kilter.
On top of that, Harvard doesn’t typically score a lot of goals, and I think they’ll be able to keep this one close. I doubt either team will break the 15 goal threshold, so I think this is an easy pick headed into the week.
As always, good luck everyone!
Week 12 Picks
- Colgate vs. Holy Cross (Friday)--Colgate
- UMass vs. Hobart (Friday)--UMass
- Marquette vs. Denver (Friday)--DU
- Georgetown vs. Villanova (Friday)--GTown
- Lehigh vs. Loyola (Friday)--Lehigh
- Bucknell vs. Navy (Friday)--Navy
- Army vs. Boston (Friday)--Army
- Towson vs. Delaware (Saturday)--Delaware
- Harvard vs. Yale (Saturday)--Yale
- Bellarmine vs. Jacksonville (Saturday)--Jax
- High Point vs. Saint Joseph’s (Saturday)--Saint Joseph’s
- Dartmouth vs. Brown (Saturday)--Brown
- Duke vs. Syracuse (Saturday)--Duke
- Air Force vs. Robert Morris (Saturday)--AF
- Cornell vs. Princeton (Saturday)--Cornell
- Michigan vs. Ohio State (Saturday)--Michigan
- Maryland vs. Rutgers (Saturday)--Maryland
- Virginia vs. Notre Dame (Saturday)--Virginia
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