Sports Picks & Predictions

This is a play on VIRGINIA for our Tuesday Star Attraction. The ACC standings look pretty much what people thought coming into the season with a couple exceptions. Clemson is a surprise at 3-1 and Virginia is not at the top as its 1-2 record puts the Cavaliers in a tie for eighth place. Virginia is coming off a pair of losses on the road and this is the first time the Cavaliers have lost consecutive games since December, 2013. They have gone 9-3 straight up and 8-4 against the number in their previous 12 losses after that and heading home is big as the Cavaliers are 27-1 here in their last 28 conference games, the lone loss coming to Duke by six points. Miami is riding an eight-game winning streak including wins over Syracuse and Florida St. to open ACC play. The Hurricanes have played just two road games and while they are 2-0, wins over LaSalle and Nebraska are far from quality. Because of the win streak, we are getting a good line with the home team as Virginia was favored by more on the road in this matchup last season. Virginia will be out for blood Tuesday night and should roll to get back on track. 10* (744) Virginia Cavaliers

Richmond fell short of its goal last season of making the NCAA Tournament by the narrowest of margins as its 21-14 record wasn't quite good enough but its No. 1 seed in the NIT solidified how close it was. With four starters back this season, the goal is clear but the Spiders cannot afford to lose any more winnable games which is where this game falls. They are off to a 0-2 start in the Atlantic Ten with a home loss to St. Joseph's and a road loss to Rhode Island and those were both swing games that could have gone either way. Fordham is off to a surprisingly good start at 10-3, matching its win total from all of last season. The Rams are 1-1 in the conference, coming off a less than impressive win over LaSalle although the Explorers did just defeat No. 25 Dayton yesterday. All 10 wins have come at home but none of those wins have come against a team that is even close to Richmond what Richmond has. The Spiders have won nine straight in this series and while this is arguably the best Rams team over this stretch, the line is taking that into consideration. Lay the short road price here. 10* (833) Richmond Spiders