Free Pick | Wednesday | NCAA | Feb. 7

Nelly’s has a 7* tonight as part of our Hoops 2/3 Wednesday. We won 2/3 last night and we’ve won in February in 16 of the past 20 basketball seasons.

#685 Davidson +6.5 over Duquesne 6:00 PM CT

Davidson is just 2-6 in A-10 play but there have been two overtime losses and two other losses by five or fewer points. Matt McKillop has a lot of work to do to match his father’s legacy with the Wildcats, but this year’s team has been one of the best Davidson defenses in the program’s recent history. 3-point shooting has been very poor, with strong outside shooting a hallmark for the Wildcats under Bob McKillop, but this squad has great size and can score with ease inside. Davidson has four top 200 wins this season and eight of nine losses have been against top 200 teams, while posting two road wins in A-10 play and three non-conference wins away from home. Duquesne has won four in a row but only a four-point win hosting St. Bonaventure is worth mentioning as the Dukes have risen from an 0-5 start in A-10 play to 3-5 in conference play. Non-conference wins over UC Irvine and Bradley impress but both wins came by slim margins and Duquesne has five wins by five or fewer points this season. Duquesne ranks as the worst offensive team in the entire 15-team A-10 and while the defense has good numbers it has struggled defensively in the paint and Davidson will have significant size edge in this matchup. Davidson has won nine of the past 10 in this series including five wins in Pittsburgh and a Dukes team that has covered in just 40 percent of their games this season is worth fading at this price.