Packing for Vegas: College Basketball Picks Dec. 22

I hate when over 100 people read my article and I go winless. That's right—I'm linking to my picks from Saturday, even though I went 0-2. The Arizona State "loss" was easier for me to swallow than the Texas defeat. As I wrote, I was confident the Sun Devils would win, but I was rolling the dice that they'd cover. They didn't. Oh well. The Longhorns' loss in their backyard to Michigan State, on the other hand, was a real shocker. As Rick Barnes told me at the Jimmy V Classic a couple weeks ago, Texas is going to have to find its identity on offense, as inconsistency on that end has plagued Texas so far this season. Anyway, I'm back on the horse today, and once again riding a couple of favorites, both playing in the Tar Heel state: Wake Forest (-9) at East Carolina and Marquette (-1) at North Carolina State. Wake is a young team that struggled on the road at Richmond, but not enough to lose the game. I think they will overmatch ECU inside and win this game by about 15 points.  ... (link)