Free Pick | NCAA | Sunday | Jan. 1

Nelly’s went 2-0 in college basketball yesterday to close another winning month in college hoops! We have won in seven of eight weeks this college basketball season! Join us for JANUARY basketball with a huge 31-day month as conference play takes off!

Free Pick #814 Temple +4 over Cincinnati 2:00 PM CT

This looks like a daunting spot on the schedule for Cincinnati. The Bearcats took losses to Arizona, Ohio State, and Xavier in non-conference play but has rallied to reach 10-4. The AAC opening win over Tulane on Thursday is the first top 100 win of the season for Cincinnati however and Tulane barely cracks that threshold right now. Temple ranks just outside the nation’s top 100 but could be a competitive group in conference play. Cincinnati has played one true road game all season and they lost that game down the road at Northern Kentucky in November. The past seven games for Cincinnati have all been at home and an offense that struggles with long range shooting and free throws could be at risk today in Philadelphia. Temple is just 7-7 but four losses have been top 100 results and two losses have been overtime results. The Owls have wins over Villanova, Rutgers, and VCU this season and only have one home loss in regulation, albeit an ugly miss vs. Maryland Eastern Shore just before the holiday break. Temple delivered a road win in the AAC opener and has played a dramatically more difficult schedule compared with Cincinnati at this point in the season. Temple went 6-2 in AAC home games last season including beating Cincinnati, SMU, and Tulane while losing by only five hosting Houston. Cincinnati in contrast had six road losses in AAC play with only a narrow win at Wichita State worth mentioning. Temple has enough size to compete well with Cincinnati even without Jamille Reynolds who will miss a few weeks and Damian Dunn is expected to be ready to return on Sunday after missing the AAC opener.

Nelly’s has 2/3 in the NFL for Week 17 (winning 2/3 last week in Week 16) plus a Sunday college hoops pick (2-0 yesterday!