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There's a Big Monday of college basketball on ESPN with the Big East and Big 12 sending some of their best teams into the fray and sports betting aficionados are loving every minute of it.
Here's a quick look at the two nationally televised encounters:
Marquette Golden Eagles at Notre Dame Fighting Irish
This Big East clash will begin at 7 pm ET on ESPN. Sportsbook.com had your current odds on this event.
Marquette has stormed up to #10 in the national rankings with an eight game winning streak heading into this weekend, including five straight wins (4-1 against the spread) in the Big East.
The big issue with this team right now is an easy in-conference schedule that has avoided heavyweights like Pittsburgh, UConn, Louisville, Syracuse, and Georgetown up to this point.
What is indisputable is they have a great three-guard lineup with Wesley Matthews, Jerel McNeal and Dominic James. Forward Lazar Hayward continues to play much bigger than his 6'6" height suggests, but this could be a tough matchup for him with the physical Luke Harangody.
Notre Dame fans got to see Connecticut invade South Bend on Saturday and now get another great game. This is a tough place for a visitor to come to with Harangody throwing his big body around and point guard Kyle McAlarney and shooting guard Ryan Ayers raining down ‘threes' at a better than 45% clip each.
Marquette won two of the three meetings betweens the teams last year, one at home and one in the conference tournament. Notre Dame did win their home contest, 86-83 behind a balanced scoring effort with five players in double digits.
A balanced effort likely won't get the job done this time around. The Irish need Harangody to meet his 25 PPG average to win these tough Big East games, and even then it's not always enough. However, this looks like a good spot for the Irish at home.
Oklahoma Sooners at Oklahoma State Cowboys
This Big 12 clash will begin at 9 pm ET on ESPN. Sportsbook.com had your current odds on this event.There's a lot more reasons to watch this game than just to see if Oklahoma's Blake Griffin is going to go off for his normal 23 points and 14 boards.
This is a great in-state rivalry matchup that extends whenever these two schools meet on the gridiron, the baseball field and of course, the basketball court.
The Sooners have looked like the class of the Big 12, marching up to #5 in the national rankings. They have a more balanced team than given credit for that includes guards Willie Warren and Tony Crocker, and forward Taylor Griffin (Blake's brother).
Guard Austin Johnson has also come on lately, winning the Big 12 Player of the Week award.
Oklahoma State is coming off a Saturday game in Nebraska and lost its previous two Big 12 games to Baylor and Missouri. This is an up-tempo, high scoring team under first year coach Travis Ford, as their 85.4 PPG is 4th in the nation.
However, with 6'11" Ibrahima Thomas deciding to transfer, they are left with a bunch of swingman type of players getting major minutes to go along with starting point guard Byron Eaton and mini-mite freshman, Keiton Page off the bench.
The question is who can remotely contain Griffin in this game, as he is tremendous when he's going up against players his own size or bigger.
Look for a lot of three-point shots from OSU once again, and they must make a lot of them to have a chance at the cover.
Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter
