Editor’s Note: This is a special guest post written by Brett Trodden of ‘CrosseTalk. He’s been on fire with a 16-4 record the last few weeks. Who is tailing?
We are coming off our best weekend, where we went 5-0 by picking Navy +4.5, Lehigh +3.5 ( and ML), Duke -4.5, Syracuse -2.5, and Richmond -2.5. Every week, I put in a parlay of all the games and it hit last weekend for about +1700! We are hot and wishing to stay hot after four straight positive weekends on the blog for a combined 16-4 in our locks.
This week’s article is special because it’s the first ‘Crossetalk article that is being promoted on Lacrosse Playground! They recognized the value in this blog and decided to take a chance by promoting it and I am very grateful!
That being said, to celebrate the success we’re having this season and this partnership, this weekend’s article will be free to read for all subscribers and if you find value in it, feel free to sign up for a paid subscription to get every weekends picks! One weekend will pay for multiple years of subscriptions!
On to this weeks picks, and hopefully I didn’t touch the money as they say…
For any new subscribers, the weekend previews are broken down into three categories; DK games, ***Locks*** and regular games. I will provide a brief, written overview of each game that appears on DraftKings (that’s the Sportsbook I use) and a lengthier overview of all my ***Locks*** (also from DraftKings). Every other game that is not on DK, I will just predict what I believe the score to be.
So far on the year, my stats with picking games are (with big time upsets Loyola over Duke, Utah over JU, and Lehigh over Army predicted)
***Locks*** = 21-10 (67.7%)
ML = 165-55 (75%)
ATS = 124-95 (56.6%)
I’m fully transparent with how money is going in and out because this blog started as a ledger/journal for my lacrosse bets/thoughts and try to keep it that way. That being said, I started the season with $500, deposited another $1500 along the way, and am currently at $8500. So that is a 425% ROI for myself. I truly believe a $5/month is worth that, especially when I bring a decade-long college lacrosse binge-watching background with a 15 year player career as well.
Saturday, March 26th
Bryant @ Hobart
DraftKings Line = Hobart -1.5/Bryant +1.5, O/U 27.5
After Bryant lost to Vermont 16-6, Air Force 16-10 and then beat Merrimack, a pretty solid team, 16-4, I’ll gladly stay away because they have to be the most inconsistent team in the nation. I believe they are a good team and with that recent win it looks like they turned it on for NEC play. And on the other side, Hobart lost to sacred heart in OT. Very weird for a team that beat Lehigh and played Cornell and Syracuse to 3 goals and 2 goals a piece. Conference play changes a lot, but Bryant is way to inconsistent and the main reason they blew out merrimack, a weak offensive team, is because their goalie had 19 saves. Hobart is a much more talented and consistent team, but I had Bryant to win the NEC this year. Maybe last week was the spark. I’ll play it safe and take Hobart here to be focused after a humiliating, uncharacteristic loss.
Hobart 15 – Bryant 12, Hobart -1.5
Vermont 18 – Canisius 7
Cleveland State 13 – VMI 8
High Point 17 – Detroit Mercy 7
Duke @ Syracuse
DraftKings Line = Duke -2.5/Syracuse +2.5, OU 29.5
Syracuse is a mid-tier team with two all-stars on O and a solid D. They have 0 depth in every position, except goalie, where they have a rotating cast of Thompson and Gavin. They’re man down is awful. It’s a miracle they’ve made it this far, and now the schedule gets really difficult. They play all top-12 teams except Albany. Syracuse is about to start trending downwards. They’ve played hard in all their matchups, Hopkins game was just not their day, but Duke is about to start rolling. If you watched the Towson game, in the second half the Blue devils initiated and ran the O through the most dynamic player in college lacrosse and he had 5G and 3A in the second half alone with the Blue devils going on a 12-3 run to win 14-7.
Take a look at their losses now were in midseason; JU by 2, Penn in OT, and Loyola by 2. All teams that are in top 20; and the Loyola and JU games were games that they clearly overlooked. I picked to win the National Championship. This weekend they clap the Orange in the dome. This is a matchup nightmare. Name one matchup Orange have over Duke. Just Dordevic against Brower, Curry against Carpenter. Naso over Phaup, Alder over which we goalie they choose, O’Neill over Kennedy, and the Duke midfield over whoever the Orange bring out because their SSDMs have been struggling. McAdorey and Dyson Williams are going to feast on the inside. I’ll take Duke by double digits this weekend.
Duke 19 – Orange 9, ***Lock*** Duke -2.5
Navy 14 – Holy Cross 7
Jacksonville 22 – St Johns 12
Merrimack 10 – LIU 9
Monmouth 15 – Quinnipiac 11
Sacred Heart 13 – Mount St Mary’s 12
Marquette 12 – Air Force 11 OT
Army @ Loyola
DraftKings Lines = Loyola -1.5/ Army +1.5, OU 25.5
Army turned it on late against Lehigh, but struggled to get any momentum because of of the face off x, which has been Army’s problem for as long as I can remember. However, I went to that game and Nichtern played poorly until the fourth quarter. They lost the majority of the face offs. Schulper was not reliable and couldn’t seem to stop Kirst. They played poorly and it was still a one-goal game.
Loyola has won three straight, Lafayette, Duke and Bucknell, and is trending upwards. Although they are my boys and I predicted them to go to the final four, I’m going to have to say they’re going to take a step back. Army is a better overall team if they can get a good game from their special teams.
Loyola 13- Army 12, Army +1.5
Read Brett’s full report here.
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