#726 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Colorado State -5.5 over Utah State, Saturday at 5:30 PM ET - Utah State sits at 9-3 in MWC play and in 1st place. They’ve played the easiest strength of schedule so far in league play having faced only 4 games (out of 12) vs the top 5 teams in the conference. USU is 1-3 SU in those games with their only win coming at home by 5 points vs this CSU team. In that game, the Rams led on the road at halftime and for a majority of the 2nd half as well in their 77-72 loss where the Utah State fans stormed the court after the win. The difference in that game was at the FT line where USU made 20 freebies and CSU made only 4. Despite that huge disparity the game still was close throughout. Now we’re getting Colorado State back at home where they are undefeated in conference play including knocking off the 2 highest rated teams in the league (San Diego State & New Mexico) both by 8 points. They enter this game off a loss @ San Diego State on Tuesday (we were on the Aztecs in that game) blowing a 14 point halftime lead and scoring only 11 points the entire 2nd half. That should give them another shot of motivation for this one. At home this CSU team is great offensively. They already rank 14th nationally in eFG% but at home this team hits 53% of their shots on 1.17 PPP and averages 83 PPG. The Aggies are off an 8 point road win at Wyoming, one of the worst teams in the conference, and their overall road record is solid at 6-3. However, they haven’t beaten a single team on the road ranked above 90 (CSU is currently ranked 36th) and they lost to every top 50 team they’ve played on the road this season. Colorado State has played the tougher overall schedule this season and despite that their efficiency margin numbers are still better than Utah State. We like the Rams to get a big home win on Saturday.