Dewey’s picks

Here are eight guesses for Week 5 (Home team in caps):

■ Duke (+2.5) over VIRGINIA

■ PURDUE (-3.5) over Minnesota

■ UTAH (+4.5) over Stanford

■ Colorado STATE-UTAH STATE (Over 64) ■ West Virginia (+13.5) over TEXAS CHRISTIAN

■ TEXAS (-4) over Kansas State

■ Fresno State (-17) over SAN JOSE STATE

■ Miami, Florida (-3) over FLORIDA STATE

■ Last week:

■ Season: the Mountaineers.

“I’m really surprised how high that line came. That seems like a ton of points,” Salmons said. “West Virginia is a much better team than what people think. When you’re betting a double-digit underdog, your team needs to score some points, and this West Virginia team can score some points.”

Sharp plays

Holt said the wiseguys also are on North Carolina (+14½) over Notre Dame, Texas-san Antonio (-13) over Southern Mississippi, Arizona (+7) over Colorado, Oregon State (+34) over USC, Louisiana State (+2½) over Florida and Miami, Florida (-3) over Florida State.

Golden Knights

The Golden Knights are plus-205 underdogs to the Stars (minus-230) on Friday in their NHL season opener at Dallas. Hockey handicapper Alex B. Smith (Axsmithsports.com) recommends a play on over 5½ goals (minus-115), noting that 19 of the first 30 NHL games played last season went over.

Three of the first four games this season went over, too.

“I’m looking at playing overs the first two weeks overall because everybody’s healthy and they have more energy now than you’ll see the entire year,” Smith said.

The Westgate opened the Knights’ season point total at 70½ in June. It was at 67½ Wednesday before climbing to 68½ Thursday.

“I would look at that going over,” Smith said. “Arizona and Vancouver are two teams on the decline in their (Pacific) division. They should win at least 25 games, and that’s 50 points right there. If they can hang around and push some games to overtime, those single points add up.”

Stanley Cup forecast

Smith likes the Edmonton Oilers, the 8-1 second choice to win the Stanley Cup, to unseat the Pittsburgh Penguins, the 7-1 favorites to claim their third straight title.

His sleeper pick is the Columbus Blue Jackets (25-1), who won 16 consecutive games last season.

“Their offense is going to be loaded,” he said.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.