Bryan Power

10* St. Louis (7:00 ET): Conference play isn’t even a month old, but across the country most teams have already experienced a loss. But in the Atlantic 10, there are still three unbeatens left, one of them the clear class of the league and that’s #13 Dayton, who is in action here. The Flyers were lucky in that leading scorer Obi Toppin’s ankle injury wasn’t as serious as originally thought. As a result, they had little difficulty defeating preseason favorite VCU on Tuesday. But that was also home. Friday, they hit the road to face a dangerous St. Louis team. 

St. Louis comes in riding a three-game win streak. They have not played since Saturday when they went to Richmond and picked up a nice 74-58 road win as 5.5-point underdogs. Having had the extra time off is surely an advantage heading into what will be the biggest home game of the entire conference slate. The Billikens suffered their only A-10 loss on the road, to also undefeated Duquesne, but are a strong 10-1 SU at home with the lone loss coming to a very good Seton Hall team. They won the only other time they were a home dog this season, that coming against Belmont right before Thanksgiving. 

I know what kind of season Toppin is having, but SLU also has a pair of standouts with Goodwin and French being the ONLY teammates nationally to both be averaging a double-double. The duo combines for 29 points and 20.5 rebounds per game. The Billikens are also a strong defensive team, which is needed to beat what has been a very efficient Dayton offense. This figures to be one of Dayton’s toughest remaining games and it’s a lot of points to lay on the road. St. Louis is already 5-2 ATS as a dog with four outright wins. Take the points. 10* St. Louis

10* Under Bulls/Sixers (7:05 ET): Chicago picked up a win it really “needed” to have on Wednesday, beating Washington 115-106 as a 3.5-point home favorite. The Bulls are now 15-27 SU on the year but by no means out of playoff contention, despite losing 7 of the last 10 games. They are just four back of the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference. But they are banged up right now with multiple players injured including Otto Porter and Wendell Carter Jr. Friday looks like a tough assignment at Philadelphia, who is 19-2 SU at home.

The Sixers have one of the sharpest home vs. road splits in the league right now. They are only 7-14 SU away from home and that’s why they’re not any higher in the Eastern Conference standings. They did beat Brooklyn here at home Wednesday night, 117-106 as a 7-point favorite. Joel Embiid remains out indefinitely, so they are short-handed right now as well. Before the win over the Nets (where they shot 51.1%), the Sixers had lost six of eight (all six losses on the road) and had even been held under 100 points four times. 

Philly, as you might expect, is a lot better defensively when at home. They give up just 102.1 PPG here, which is one of the better averages in the league. Some of that is certainly due to Embiid, but even without their All Star center, they still just held the Nets (with Kyrie) to 106 pts. Three of the Sixers last four opponents have not shot well. At the same time, they are 9-5 Under after scoring 115+ points. This O/U line exceeds what both teams’ games are averaging for the season. 10* Under Bulls/Sixers