Basketball | Wednesday, March 22, 2023 9:38 AM

Vanderbilt Commodores vs UAB Blazers Best Bet: NIT Quarterfinals Action

IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

US Sports Expert

Vanderbilt Commodores vs UAB Blazers Best Bet: Wednesday, March 22nd

The UAB Blazers and Vanderbilt Commodores have reached the NIT Quarterfinals, and they’ll do battle on Wednesday in Nashville with the home team slightly favoured. Our resident college hoops expert Ej Garr has his eyes on the total for this match so let’s not waste another minute and take it to the court.

In this article:

Vanderbilt Commodores vs UAB Blazers Preview

March 23, 00:05 (UK time)

The first two quarterfinal games were played on Tuesday night and the last two will be played on Wednesday night, as the NIT plows toward the semifinals to be played in Las Vegas this year. Might I add, I am still getting used to the NIT Final Four not being played here in New York at MSG, but maybe it was just time for a change of location.

Regardless of where they play, UAB and Vandy present an interesting clash and the line setters have no idea who to pledge allegiance making this a pick ‘em game. To be honest with you, I don’t even want to mess around with who is going to win this game because my eyes are on the total for this contest being played on Vandy’s home floor in Nashville.

Naturally, one would think Vanderbilt has the natural advantage of being in the SEC and having a home crowd behind them, but UAB is not about to be intimidated by the moment. The Blazers have taken wins from 13 of their last 15 games, and not only is their defense relatively sound but the UAB offense is no slush either.

UAB ranks 9th in the country scoring 82.2 PPG, but I don’t think they are going to find a wealth of success tonight. The Blazers will get close to that number tonight but I don’t think they’ll quite get there The Commodores score about 72 PPG and they give up just about 72 PPG, but I think that this total is just a little too low for my liking. Pinnacle is showing 1.87 for the Over 152, which means that at least one of these programs will have to bring in 80 points, and the other needs to get damn close to that too.

UAB has held three of their five opponents to 60 points or less including both games they have played in this year’s NIT. Let’s not make the mistake of giving Morehead State and Southern Miss enough respect to thinking they were going to even give UAB a game, and neither did that!

Vandy needs to turn their concern to Jordan Walker and do everything they can to keep him from having a huge game. Walker is averaging just under 20 PPG in the post-season and his 22.6 PPG for the campaign makes him the 4th best scorer in all of Division 1 hoops.

Both of these teams have depth, and there are scorers all over the floor. UAB is not just the Jordan Walker show, and he has guys all around him that can find double-digits any night.
Vandy isn’t listing Liam Robbins as out for this game, which makes no sense since he’s only their leading scorer this year?!?! Um, hello?

Luckily, Vandy is finding ways to produce buckets without him and I don’t think UAB will be able to slow them down tonight on the road.