Yahoo Sports The Daily Sweat: Marquette would have an argument to be No. 1 with win over Purdue
Marquette wasn't going to be a surprise to anyone this season. The Golden Eagles won the Big East regular season and tournament championships last season and brought most of their roster back.
Still, another win on Wednesday and they'll be the story of college basketball early this season.
On Tuesday night at the Maui Invitational, Marquette's win over No. 1 Kansas was never in question. They dominated in a 73-59 victory. Next up is No. 2 Purdue in the Maui title game.
If Marquette, who was No. 4 in the AP poll this week, beats the top two teams in back-to-back days? No offense to Arizona and its impressive win at Duke, but it would be hard to keep Marquette out of the No. 1 spot in next week's poll.
Not that beating Purdue will be easy. Purue opened as a 3.5-point favorite. The Boilermakers have looked good to start the season. Zach Edey, last season's national player of the year, is dominant again but there's more. Purdue is playing great defense, hitting its 3s and holding off Tennessee down the stretch on Tuesday was impressive.
It's a great showdown to determine the champion of a loaded Maui Invitational field. Perhaps the dream matchup was Kansas vs. Purdue, but Marquette wasn't going to let that happen. The Golden Eagles are already a national title contender. Another win on Wednesday and they might look like the new favorite.
Here's the first look at the sports betting slate for Wednesday:
More college hoops
It says something about the Maui field that Kansas vs. Tennessee is a third-place game. That's a great matchup. The Jayhawks don't want to take two straight losses in Hawaii this week. They're a slight 1.5-point favorite against the Volunteers at BetMGM, who might be the best team in the SEC this season. That will be a fantastic game leading into the title game. Even the fifth-place game of Gonzaga vs. UCLA (those teams have played some classics, too) is pretty good. Gonzaga is favored by 4.5.
There are other good college basketball games on all day long, including the start of the usually strong Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, as you get ready for Thanksgiving.
NBA has a full day
The NBA takes Thanksgiving off, so it stuffs a lot of games into Wednesday. There are 14 pro games in addition to all the college action.
The big game Wednesday is the Milwaukee Bucks at the Boston Celtics. The 11-3 Celtics have looked like the better team as the Bucks figure themselves out with Damian Lillard. But the Bucks are 10-4 and Giannis Antetokounmpo has been incredible. The Celtics are 5.5-point favorites, and I wouldn't be so fast to take the Bucks and the points. There's still a lot of work to do in Milwaukee.
The other game in the NBA doubleheader is the Golden State Warriors at the Phoenix Suns. Neither team is off to a great start. The Suns are 8-6, mostly because Devin Booker missed a lot of time, and the Warriors are 7-8. It's still a fun rivalry, and the Suns are 1.5-point favorites.
Keep an eye on the Denver Nuggets-Orlando Magic game too. The Magic are off to a surprising 9-5 start, they've been great against the spread too, and Wednesday's game against the defending champs can show how improved Orlando really is this season. The Nuggets are 3.5-point road favorites.
What's the best bet?
There's certainly enough hoops to watch on Wednesday. While I like Marquette and the points, the Celtics and the Nuggets, I'll go with Tennessee as my top play. The Volunteers are very good on defense, they just weren't quite good enough to beat Purdue. Kansas will be good this season too, as always, but right now I think the Volunteers are a bit better. I'll take the Vols to win.
