Articles by Cappers Picks related to online college basketball betting, and handicapping live ncaab matchups.
College basketball season is just around the corner. Team media days have come and gone and practices are now in full swing. The first games of the season come on November 8. CappersPicks is going to give you a look at power rankings in many different conferences.
Last year Louisville took home the big prize and it was hardly a surprise. They used an experienced backcourt and a fearsome defense to blow through the field winning their first championship in a long time. A very good chunk of that team returns to defend yet the Cardinals are not considered the top contender coming into this season…
Is it ever really too early to start looking at these things? I suppose not if the sportsbooks are willing to take our bets. This has been an interesting offseason for NCAA hoops futures because player movement has significantly influenced the odds.
Both Louisville and Michigan have had impressive runs to the title game and overall the Cardinals have not lost since early February Louisville had to come back in their last game using their great pressure defense to come back to win by 4 points.
I know I am supposed to write about Louisville but I have to throw some love to the Wichita State Shockers here. They pushed the Cardinals more than anybody expected and could easily have won the game.
The Orange were very impressive last week in earning their spot in the Final Four. They put forth two fantastic defensive games holding Indiana and Marquette to an average of just 45 points.
There was a lot of talk this season about how there wasn’t a dominant team in the college game. Louisville is making us second guess all of that rhetoric.
Louisville is coming off a huge win over Duke in the Elite 8 and they have a huge lift for this game after one of their key bench players Kevin Ware was lost for the season with a terrible injury.
In a match up of a couple of #4 seeds Michigan faces Syracuse where the winner will head to the National Championship game. The Orange have played stellar D in their last 2 Big Dance games and they will be facing a great Michigan squad that has knocked off Kansas and Florida, who are a couple of top 10 teams, in advancing to the Final 4.
The final score of Louisville vs. Oregon probably didn’t tell the true story of the game. It looked kind of close but really the Cardinals were in control – no surprise.
NCAA Tournament – Midwest Bracket
#1 Louisville Cardinals (32-5) vs #2 Duke Blue Devils (30-5)
Sunday March 31
Lucas Oil Stadium – Indianapolis, IN
5:05PM
Moneyline: Louisville -175, Duke +155 at GTBets
Spread: Louisville -3.5
O/U: 137
ATS Matchup Stats | Gambling Insight!
Check out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s CBB Picks Today!
For bettors it was a disappointment as the Cards failed to cover for the first time in the tournament.
Now they square off against Duke, a team they lost to back in November…when they were missing center Georgui Dieng.
Guard Russ Smith was fantastic once again scoring 31 points even though he made just one three pointer. He made 12 of 14 from the free throw line showing the versatility to his game – I am not sure the Blue Devils have a good counter for him defensively.
It seems like every tournament game a new face steps forward for Louisville. Against the Ducks it was sophomore guard Kevin Ware, who more than doubled his seasonal average with 11 points.
To demonstrate how unlikely that was – it was his first double digit game since the first game of the season.
Louisville continues to roll and the fact that they did not beat Oregon by 20 probably makes them even more valuable in this one. They are playing great but you have to think that there are some who are going to see that loss to Duke and get on the Blue Devils to bring this one down further.
Let’s hope so.
I thought Friday night would be the end of the line for Duke. Michigan State fights you in a way that most teams don’t and I thought Duke wouldn’t be able to respond. I certainly did not see them being able to get the Spartans bigs off their games the way they did, holding them to 30% shooting from the field. [ad-6571516]
If they still have something left in their tank they are going to need it all to beat Louisville one more time and earn a trip to the Final Four.
Guard Seth Curry had a fantastic shooting game in leading the Dookies over MSU but I don’t see that happening against Louisville this time around. He was 3 for 11 in that early season victory, a game where center Mason Plumlee was the top scorer.
Plumlee will definitely find it harder this time around and the Blue Devils will likely need to get at least some production from their bench. In the victory over LU only 3 of 76 points came from subs.
It’s Duke so you can’t run your mouth off and say they can’t win…they almost always do. Still I think it will be much harder for them to do what they did again in this game.
Louisville is looking super hungry and their defense is better now than the last time they played.
It is hard to beat a team that good twice.
Spread Pick: Louisville -3.5
O/U Pick: Under
Score Prediction: Louisville 69 – Duke 62
Michigan scored an upset in the Sweet 16 in their OT win over Kansas and while they have one of the best backcourts in the nation their frontcourt stepped up big in their last game.
The East Region championship game is an all Big East affair where Syracuse will take on Marquette and the winner will advance to the Final 4. When these 2 teams met in conference play this season Marquette was at home and beat Syracuse 76-71.
The Buckeyes win against Arizona followed the same blueprint as their win against Ohio State. They were outplayed by the Wildcats for stretches, let them back into the ball game late, all before hitting a game winning three with almost no time left on the clock.
Florida Gulf Coast has become the first ever 15th seed to make it to the Sweet 16 and they have nothing to lose with all the pressure on Florida, who should win this game.
In a sweet match up in the South Region the top seed Kansas Jayhawks face the 4th seed Michigan Wolverines where the winner will advance to the Elite 8.
It is a little bit odd that Duke beat Creighton by a greater margin than they did Albany. I thought the Blue Jays would be able to push Duke but they shot horribly in a very disappointing performance.
