Sunday Plays and thoughts from Saturday

What an odd day in basketball! 3DW was 1-1 in official picks and our system play that was just below 80 percent (79.5) is now over with two winners yesterday. All of our plays today are from the NBA, with an outstanding system that is 26-4 ATS. The Top Trend is from tonight’s ESPN affair and is a perfect total play. Slick Rick looks to hunt down another winner, this one on the road again. Good Luck

What I thought yesterday- I've never seen a team as tired as Kansas State in a big game from start to finish.I've never seen a game where a team did not have a two-point field goal and led at halftime. (West Virginia)

As I wrote in my article about the game, I presumed West Virginia would play more 1-3-1 zone. In theory a good coaching job by Huggins, but a terrible effort by John Calipari in preparation and execution by his players. Yes, Kentucky is young, but that has nothing to do with how you perform execution.

I coached AAU basketball for a number of years and the 1-3-1 zone is one of the easiest to defeat. Like any zone, you have to hit shots which Kentucky did not do. However, how you take it a step further is crisp passing (not look-hold-pass), which forces the wing players to cover about 10 feet of space on continual basis. Over time that should open up shots at 15 feet, not 20 or more.

Next you send weak-side cutter thru and have your player in the middle set screen for possible layup up or catch and pass to big man in the middle. Or you have your big man set screen opposite side when the ball is at the top of either side for weak-side dunk from low wing player against smaller low man in the zone.

I saw none of this by coach Cal.

It's interesting to note both teams that lost Saturday played the later games on Thursday and neither was mentally sharp and both shot the ball incredibly poorly. Curious to see what Michigan State and Duke do in same circumstance.

Do you realize a 5 or 6 seed is guaranteed to play in national championship with Butler, Michigan State and Tennessee alive on that side of the bracket?

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Free Basketball System -1) Play On road teams like Golden State, scoring 103 or more points a game on the season, after trailing in their previous game by 20 or more points at the half. Since 2005, this system checks in at 26-4 ATS, 86.7 percent.

Free Basketball Trend -2) Boston is 10-0 UNDER after leading their last two games by 10 or points at the half over the last two seasons.

Free Basketball Pick -3) Slick Rick is 20-7 since last Sunday and his Best Bet this day is Portland.