Sometimes the obvious is boring or misleading.  You see a line that is too good to be true and think, no I should stay away.  Fight the urge to be different on Thursday night when the #1 team in the nation the Gonzaga Bulldogs go on the road to face off against the Pacific Tigers.  The Zag’s put a beating on Pacific in their first matchup winning by 46 points in their first matchup of the year. We should see something similar in their second meeting.  

The Zags have won 5 of 6 by 22 points most recently beating and covering versus Pepperdine.  The Zags have so much depth that even if this game gets out of hand early the bench is still strong enough to dominate a terrible Pacific team.  The only chance Pacific has is to slow down the pace and force Gonzaga to defend and not run their offense.  The Tigers are slow ranking 272nd the nation in tempo, the problem is they don’t take advantage of their slow pace with an effective field goal percentage of 44.3%.  They don’t score nearly enough to truly compete. 

Laying 23 points on the road in a conference game is always a scary situation but Mark Few will have his guys ready to go and they will jump out early.  Pacific has no answer for Corey Kispert, Drew Timme or Jalen Suggs.  At each position there is a matchup nightmare.  Take the first half and the game spread.  I am playing the game spread for my play of the day because Pacific can’t score and the Zags can score at an insane rate.  

Play of the day: Gonzaga Bulldogs -23.5