Both 12th seed South Florida and Ohio have already pulled off some upsets in the Big Dance and USF and their stellar defense has held their 2 opponents in the Big Dance to only 54 and 44 points respectively.
I thought the Cincinnati Bearcats might squander an opportunity and lose to Texas in the first round – they didn’t.
#6 Cincinnati Bearcats (25-10) vs #3 Florida State Seminoles (25-9)
Sunday March 18
East Region – Nashville, TN
9:40PM
Moneyline: No money line currently listed
Spread: Florida State -2
O/U: 127
Cincinnati
Now they have an even bigger opportunity to make it to the Sweet Sixteen, something nobody could have predicted a few months ago.
As you can tell by the small line they have a legit shot too.
Florida is one of the most unpredictable teams of recent memory.
Against the Longhorns center Yancy Gates dominated (15 points, 10 boards and 3 blocks). It was to be expected as Texas had no one who could really look him in the eye. Florida does so they are going to have to get production from him and other sources to pull off the upset.
Sean Kilpatrick is the Bearcats leading scorer but he had a poor game with just 8 points. If he has another these guys are history. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Florida State
Other than that one route against North Carolina it seems that the Seminoles never do things the easy way. They escaped against Atlantic 10 champ St. Bonaventure by tightening things up in the second half – winning by three and leaving ATS bettors with losing tickets.
They really put the clamps on A10 player of the year Andrew Nicholson who didn’t miss in the first half and that made the difference.
On offense they seem to have finally figured out that they should just keep feeding Bernard James in the post. He shot 8 for 11 and scored a season high 19 points with 9 rebounds.
Cincy, with Gates, has better size to matchup but they should still work the offense through James.
I feel confident in writing that they can not afford another poor performance by Michael Snaer in this tournament. He was 0 for 7 for the game .
Spread Pick: Florida State -2
O/U Pick: Over
Score Prediction: Florida State 69 – Cincinnati 62
The Vanderbilt Commodores breathed a sigh of relief after beating Harvard in the round of 64.
If you read my regional preview than you already know that I am thrilled with how Gonzaga looked on Thursday night in clobbering West Virginia.
Kansas lost in the Big 12 conference semifinals and that likely cost them a #1 seed in the Big Dance. Detroit will not be a pushover and the Titans have won 5 straight and even though they only finished 3rd in the Horizon Conference this season they did not have much trouble winning the conference tourney.
South Florida was sitting on the Big Dance bubble, but they made it in and beat California in the play-in game to make the field of 64.
Purdue ended the season well winning 6 of their last 8 games, but they lost to Ohio State in the Big 10 semis.
Michigan is coming off getting crushed in the Big 10 semifinals and they now face an Ohio team that has won 4 straight.
The Florida State Seminoles excite with their wins even if they are not a very exciting team to watch. They took down Duke and North Carolina in the regular season and did so again in the ACC tournament to earn the conference’s automatic bid.
The Cincinnati Bearcats are a study in contrasts this year. After the brawl with Xavier they regrouped and played very good basketball, so good they surprised Syracuse in the Big East Tournament.
Georgetown is the 3rd seed in the Midwest Region, but they have lost in the first round in the last 2 NCAA Tournaments and they face a dangerous Belmont team that made the Big Dance last season and is the nation’s 4th highest scoring team.
The #9 vs. #8 match up in the Midwest Region between Creighton and Alabama is a good one with a couple of teams with contrasting styles and the winner will likely have the unenviable task of taking on North Carolina in the round of 32.
SDSU had won their last 6 games before falling to New Mexico in the Mountain West Conference finals and this season they were 3-1 facing ranked teams.
Well the Wisconsin Badgers have done it again. Early in the Big Ten season it looked like their run of tournament appearances might come to a close but this team is so well coached it seems like they are never down for very long.
According to the Selection Show the only reason the Buckeyes were not a #1 seed was because they lost to Michigan State in the Big 10 Championship game.
If you read the piece about the East Region that is posted you will know that I am very bullish on Gonzaga right now.
