Rams vs Cardinals MidWest Region Spread/Handicapping
Louisville was Russdiculous in their tournament opener beating overmatched North Carolina A&T by 31 points.
NCAA Tournament – Midwest Bracket
#1 Louisville (30-5) vs #8 Colorado State (26-8)
Saturday March 23
Rupp Arena – Lexington, KY
5:15PM
Moneyline: Louisville -650, Colorado State +510 at WagerWeb
Spread: Louisville -10.5
O/U: 134.5
ATS Matchup Stats | Gambling Insight!
Check out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s CBB Picks Today!
Louisville
It was the kind of performance you expect from a #1 seed and the kind that solidified their assessment as the top team in the Tournament coming into it.
The Cardinals head into the next round on a 11 game winning streak with all but one of those games won by 12 points or more. They are red hot.
Guard Russ Smith was fantastic in their opener jumping to an early lead in the Most Outstanding Player race. Smith scored 23 points and his 8 steals enable us to forgive that he turned the ball over 4 times.
CLICK GRAB OUR BEST Expert CBB Hoops Picks for 2013 GAMBLING season!
I know you have to consider the opponent but the Cardinals won by 31 despite shooting poorly from deep (25%) and from the free throw line (59%).
To me that shows areas for improvement not luck.
The way Louisville looked in their opener it is hard to bet against them, When their defense is on they can torture opponents and even though Colorado State scored 80+ points against Mizzou they are not really a strong offensive team.
Not a ton of value in this game but I think it is all on the Louisville side.
Colorado State
I hadn’t seen a lot of Colorado State throughout the course of the season but was impressed with what I saw in their win against Missouri. They got on the Tigers early and never really let them get too close, closing out a 12 point victory.
[ad-6571516]
They shot the ball well and absolutely owned the boards, doubling up the Tigers on the glass. If they can keep doing that they can be a threat to any team.
The Rams also have some room to improve as they failed to get leading scorer Colton Iverson going against Mizzou. He actually had more offensive rebounds than points (5 to 4) as guard Dorian Green led the way with 26, double his season average.
They are going to need someone to step up similarly if they are going to compete for 40 minutes against Louisville.
It might be unrealistic to expect another command performance from this team that generally just outworks people.
The same team Colorado State just beat, Mizzou, got destroyed by Louisville earlier this season.
That result aside I am not confident that the Rams can keep this one within a reasonable working margin.
This program may be a factor going forward in the Mountain West but their tourney run this year is about to end.
Spread Pick: Louisville -10.5
O/U Pick: Under
Score Prediction: Louisville 74 – Colorado State 60
