BYU vs. NEVADA 11/6/2018 Free Pick & CBB Betting Prediction

The BYU and the NEVADA will both be gunning for a victory on 11/6/2018 at 11:00 PM when they meet in a game matchup.

BYU vs NEVADA
When: 11:00 PM  ET, Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Where: Lawlor Events Center, Reno, Nevada

TV: 11:00 PM
LINE: -14
PREDICTION: NEVADA , BYU

Oddsmakers currently have the NEVADA listed as -14 point favorites versus the BYU, while the game’s total is sitting at 154.

With four starters back from a team that won its second consecutive outright Mountain West regular season championship and advanced to the Sweet 16, Nevada is garnering plenty of support as a potential Final Four sleeper team this season. The ninth-ranked Wolf Pack open their season on Tuesday night when they host a BYU squad that has its sights set on returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.

Nevada placed three players on the five-man preseason all-Mountain West team including reigning conference Player of the Year Caleb Martin and twin brother Cody Martin, the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year, along with senior forward Jordan Caroline, who notched Mountain West Tourney MVP honors in 2017. All three tested the NBA waters during the spring before electing to return and will be joined by preseason Mountain West Freshman of the Year Jordan Brown, a 6-11 McDonald’s All-American who choose the Wolf Pack over schools like Arizona, UCLA and California, and 6-11 grad transfer Trey Porter, who averaged 13.2 points and 6.2 rebounds last season at Old Dominion. “We’re a talented team, for sure; we’ve got a lot of guys back, and we’re a veteran team,” Nevada coach Eric Musselman said. “But we have a lot of moving parts, a lot of new pieces that we’ve got to figure out how they’re going to fit.” BYU returns six players with starting experience from a team that finished third in the West Coast Conference and lost to Stanford in the first round of the NIT, including junior forward Yoeli Childs, a WCC Player of the Year candidate.

TV: 11 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network.

ABOUT BYU (2017-18: 24-11): The Cougars, picked to finish third in the WCC coaches’ preseason poll, did get one first place vote — from Gonzaga’s Mark Few —- while Childs, who averaged 17.8 points and 8.6 rebounds last season, was voted to the 10-player preseason all-WCC team. The Cougars lost leading scorer Elijah Bryant (18.2 ppg, 6.3 rpg) who decided to bolt early and is now playing professionally in Israel, but return three other players who started including guard TJ Haws, 6-10 forward Luke Worthington and guard Jahshire Hardnett. Junior guard Nick Emery, who garnered all-WCC honors as a freshman, has been reinstated by the NCAA after missing all of last season due to extra-benefits allegations but must sit out the first nine games of the season.

ABOUT NEVADA (2017-18: 29-8): Caleb Martin, a preseason All-American, ranked third in the Mountain West in scoring with an average of 18.9 points per game and connected on 40.3 percent of his 3-point shots to go along with 5.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals. He moved from his natural small forward spot to point guard when starter Lindsey Drew, who averaged 8.1 points, 4.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds and is expected back later in the season, ruptured his Achilles’ tendon in February. The 6-7, 235-pound Caroline, the son of former NFL star Simeon Rice, gets overshadowed at times by the Martin twins but has scored 1,483 points in his career and finished second in the Mountain West in rebounding as a sophomore with a 9.2 average.

TIP-INS

1. The Wolf Pack are 32-2 in their last 34 home games at Lawlor Events Center.

2. Brown is the first five-star recruit in Nevada program history and just the second McDonald’s All-American to sign with the school.

3. Nevada is 21-0 in nonconference home games under Musselman.

PREDICTION: Nevada 92, BYU 80

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