Good morning, Pickswise Nation, and welcome to another wonderful day of sports. It’s Thursday so that means NFL Week 10 gets underway tonight. On top of that, we still have a massive NHL slate, the continued start of the college basketball season, plus more NBA action. Let’s get straight to making your next bet better!
About Last Night
Upsets abound on the court
The college basketball season is only a few days old, but we’ve already seen some major upsets involving Power 5 teams. That continued on Wednesday, with the Bellarmine Knights knocking off Louisville as 12.5-point underdogs for their first-ever official Division 1 victory. Our NCAAB handicapping team was all over this matchup, cashing our first 3-star best bet of the season on Bellarmine as we continued our hot start to the college hoops season, improving to 10-6.
Strong night of NHL totals
The NHL season has been wildly unpredictable to this point, but our team of NHL handicappers has been on the ball, including a 3-1 record on totals in last night’s action. The most notable result on the ice came in Washington, where the Penguins beat the Capitals to end their 7-game losing streak. Elsewhere, the Panthers blanked the Hurricanes and the Canadiens defeated the Canucks.
Today’s Slate
Thursday Night Football returns
The Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers just met a few weeks ago, and it surprisingly produced one of the best games of this NFL season, including a wild finish. What will these teams do for an encore? We’ll find out tonight, as these NFC South rivals will meet in Charlotte.
Four NBA matchups to get hyped for
After yesterday’s monster 13-game slate, the action on the professional hardwood is a little more limited but we have a solid 4 games to look forward to. Among those is the 76ers vs Hawks, which will be shown live on NBA TV.
Massive NHL slate on tap
Wednesday was a quiet night in the NHL, but we’ve got a full slate of games today. The marquee matchup of the night pits the Calgary Flames against the Boston Bruins. Other games include the Senators vs Devils, Oilers vs Hurricanes and Predators vs Avalance.
There’s midweek College Football action, too
Following a wild night of MACtion on Wednesday, college football is back on Thursday with a pair of matchups. First up is Tulsa vs Memphis, while Georgia Southern travels to Louisiana in an important Sun Belt matchup.
NCAAB continues
The long road to March Madness is finally here. Monday marked the start of the college basketball season, and the opening week continues on Thursday with a number of high-profile teams in action, including Kansas and Texas Tech.
Best Bet of the Day
NFL: Carolina Panthers +3 over Atlanta Falcons (-110)
8:15 pm ET, Amazon Prime
The Panthers are still in the hunt for the NFC South if you can believe that or not. The Panthers defense is much better than what they showed last week, and that was just a matter of running into a buzzsaw. They should get back safety Jeremy Chinn from IR and are likely as healthy as they’ve been in a while on defense. The Falcons are bottom five in run defense and still are missing their top two CBs in AJ Terrell and Casey Hayward. I can see them leaning heavily on D’Onta Foreman in the run game and recall that the Falcons did allow Carolina to run for 169 yards on 36 carries in the first matchup. That should keep the Panthers in this game with a chance to win.
Must-watch
Don’t forget to check out our daily show Let’s Bet It on our YouTube channel at youtube.com/c/Pickswise at 10:00 am ET.
Jared Smith and Mark Zinno are your hosts today and they will be joined by Pickswise prop specialist Bobby Stanley (aka Prop Holiday). The team will be previewing the Thursday Night Football matchup, plus looking at this weekend’s college football and NFL action before revealing their Plays of the Day.
You can also access the show at any time through Spotify and Apple Podcasts (search for Let’s Bet It Presented By Pickswise).
Stat of the Day
The Atlanta Falcons are 3-1 against the spread coming off a loss this season, covering by an average of 7 points.