College Basketball Betting: Louisville at No. 9 West Virginia

Rick Pitino's Cardinals are far from an NCAA Tournament lock. (AP Images)

Could Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals actually miss the NCAA Tournament? The Cards are just 13-7 with one true road win on the season entering Saturday’s game at West Virginia, and they definitely need a few quality wins on their resume. However, the Mountaineers have opened as solid favorites for this game on Bodog’s college basketball odds.

Louisville’s current RPI rating is just 44th in the country. The good news is that the Cardinals ended a three-game losing streak with a 68-60 win over Cincinnati last Sunday. But UL is 0-3 against ranked teams this year (0-3 ATS) and has yet to beat a lock NCAA Tournament team. Pitino made a lineup switch before the Cincinnati game, moving Terrence Jennings into the starting lineup at power forward and giving Louisville a big frontcourt with star Samardo Samuels. Jennings had eight points and five rebounds in a career-high 32 minutes against the Bearcats, and UL’s defense was markedly improved.

West Virginia (16-3, 7-11 ATS), which has won three games in a row, won’t really have anyone size-wise to match up with Jennings and Samuels, but it does have a bevy of talented wing players led by Da'Sean Butler (15.9 ppg, 6.4 rpg) and Kevin Jones (14.1 ppg, 7.8 rpg). WVU is 12-0 this season when leading at the half and 14-0 when holding opponents under 50 percent shooting – UL averages 44.5 percent from the field.

When making your college basketball bet on this game, know that Louisville swept both games last year and has won the past four meetings overall. But WVU hasn’t lost at home to an unranked team since Jan. 30, 2008. Despite this season’s 1-4 road record, Louisville has still won 13 of its last 20 on the road, including five against ranked teams.

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