Rock Hill Recap (Part 1) and Wednesday CBB Bets

I decided to open my season this year at the Field of 68 Opening Day Basketball Marathon event in Rock Hill, South Carolina.  Since my goal is to hit all 365 Division 1 arenas getting to netural court events isn't always the priority but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take in live basketball all night while the rest of the country is sleeping.  It also allowed me to check out 10 different teams up close and personal on opening night and I was able to make it to venue #101 (that will get it's own post).

This event was incredbile.  The Rock Hill Sports & Events Center is the perfect spot to host something like this and Visit York County was extremely accomodating and helpful with credentals.  Even if you didn't have a media pass it was so easy to walk up to the court and get close to the action.  There was also bars and food establishments that stayed open late because the games started at midnight.  I will absolutely be back next year and 10/10 recommend going.  Here is the first "Arena Tour" of the season with perspectives from all four overnight/morning games!

Over the next few days I'm going to give you something actionable for each of the 10 teams I got to see play on Monday and I will map it out so I'm doing it in the context of the next game they will play.  We have three of those 10 teams in action tonight but Applachian State plays a non-D1 which means sadly we can't bet on it.   The good news is after App State plays a televised practice against something called Christendom tonight the Mountaineers have a string of games against schools from bigger conferences so I do think there will be ways to get involved one way or another.

If you didn't know better you would have thought you were watching the Florida Gators for the first eight minutes of Applachian State's season.  App State couldn't miss, got every board and at the under 12 media timeout in the first half had a 23-5 lead over a Merrimack team that is picked by many to win the Metro Conference.  That's about how the game went, Applachian State was great defensively, won the rebounding battle 42-30 and sucked the life out of what ended up being a 63-49 Mountaineers win.  The burning question now is will Applachian State be able to do that when they play true road games at Auburn and Charlotte next week?

I think the answer ends up being "YES", maybe not enough for an outright win at Neville Arena but I could certainly see Applachian State covering a big number.  Applachain State has the size to not get dominated from a physical standpoint by Auburn and Dustin Kerns is a far better coach than Steven Pearl.  Charlotte doesn't have big frontcourt skill either so I do think Applachian State will be in a favorable spot to cover as a big underdog at least once next week.  I also won't be giving Charlotte a huge bump for home court since this was the scene at one of their bigger home games last season.

The most impressed I was with any of the 10 teams I saw play on Monday was High Point.  I think it's known that High Point should be very good this season but the Panthers dismanled a Liberty team that should easily win Conference USA and did so without two of their better players.  High Point also had the most impressive fan turnout in Rock Hill as they came in by the busload and caused the opening game of the event to sell out.

I expect all of those fans and a whole bunch more to be in attendence tonight for High Point's home opener at the Qubein Center.  I also don't think there's a number big enough here as Maryland Eastern Shore is a candidate to be the worst team in all of Division 1 this season.

This line has moved considerably from -30 all the way up to -34.5 and it's a move I agree with as I made the number High Point -33.4 here.  This reminds me alot of when High Point hosted Canisius early in the season last year and at the time I thought Canisius might be a bottom 10 team in college basketball.  High Point won that game 93-50 and I'm expecting a similar score line here.  Lean High Point.

I was really starting to drag on no sleep going into the 9AM game but fortunately Rex the Lion was in the building getting the crowd fired up.

My Queens "lean" was correct as the Royals held on to beat Winthrop 103-98.  Queens head coach Grant Leonard had one of his famous custom sweaters on commerating Queens winning the Atlantic Sun in 2026 and I think there's a very good chance Queens repeats as A-Sun Champions this year.

What I'm not sure about is Queens picking up another win here.  This is a BRUTAL situational spot for Queens who played a 9AM game in Rock Hill, South Carolina on Monday and now have to fly all the way to Los Angeles to face a stout WCC team on Wednesday night.  I'm not sure how Queens will respond to that, but what I am sure of is the Royals are LEGIT offensively led by Jordan Watford who went for 26 on Monday morning and will probably be the ASUN Player of the Year.

I don't think it's going to be the offensive end that suffers for Queens in this game.  If the legs are going to go it's probably on the defensive end trying to contain scorers like Jevon Porter and All Wright.  Winthrop is down this season from what they usually are and still found a way to put up 98 against Queens.  I think there's a strong possiblity this game is played in the 80's so that has me leaning toward the OVER.