CBB PrizePicks Plays for 1/27

If it’s not now it may be never for Honor Huff. It’s no surprise that he had a tough night against Arizona in their last game as a 5’10” scorer against elite defender Jaden Bradley and a mountain of size elsewhere. But he was painfully bad, shooting 4-15 from the field and 2-9 from three to tally just 10 points. 

He’s been brutal for a couple games now, staying below his 15.5 projection in the last four games which included him shooting a combined 8-33 from three. Thankfully he gets to face a Kansas St defense that has been horrid in nearly all facets, but has gotten especially shredded by high volume guards. Terrence Brown dropping 33 PTS on 24 FGA, Anthony Roy with 23 on 15 FGA, and Mo Odum with 21 on 17 FGA just to name a few from Big 12 play. 

Abdi Bashir being out is also a huge loss for the KST defense, not because he’s a great defender (he stinks) but because he stands at 6’7” and his absence introduces 6’1” David Castillo to the starting lineup. One of the few comparable height matchups Honor Huff will see all year. Khamari McGriff also remains out for the Wildcats which has been a sizable hit to their rim protection. So Huff will get a beautiful matchup in what should be a big time pace up spot for WVU against this horrid KST defense. Let him cook.

Should be a great game tonight with the GCU Lopes facing off against the Nevada Wolfpack. This play is a little speculative based on defense. Henley in my opinion is GCU’s best point of attack defender. Corey Camper is Nevada’s leading scorer who not only has been scorching hot from deep lately, but also stands 6’5” and has a solid post game. I think if GCU goes into this game and allows either 6’2” Makaih Williams or 6’6” (and not physical enough) Caleb Shaw to spend time on Camper they’ll get torched. With the defender Henley is at 6’7” I think Bryce Drew would be dumb to not give him the Camper assignment. Which would mean more time glued to him on the perimeter and a drop in effectiveness crashing the boards.

Like most guards, Henley gets a good bit of his rebounding chances both from 3PTA and from opposing bigs shooting outside of the paint. Nevada ranks 336th in CBB in 3PTA with just 18.3 per game, with 5 of those coming from Camper. Nevada also has Elijah Price, a solid scoring threat at the 5 but a minimal perimeter shooting threat. All this to say that outside of Camper, Nevada isn’t taking many threes. Not to mention that despite the low volume, they are a top 20 team in 3PT shooting. Extreme efficiency from the Wolfpack. And if Henley is spending a good amount of time defending Camper as it would make sense for him to do, there shouldn’t be enough boards to go around.

Even if Henley isn’t the primary Camper defender all game, the lack of huge perimeter threat from the Nevada bigs will certainly aid in clogging the paint. Price and Lowery will step out for one or two a game if that, which should allow the GCU bigs defending them to be in good position to be the ones swallowing up the boards on the inside.