The 15th-seeded American University Eagles are slated to face the No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers Thursday afternoon, and while it wouldn\u2019t be advised to choose the Eagles as your Cinderella team this season, there are reasons to believe they could cover the spread in their second-round matchup. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
2014 NCAA Tournament Free Picks<\/strong> ATS Matchup Insight<\/a> | CP Insider Gambling Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The American Eagles are an incredibly efficient team. They may only score 63.9 points per game on the year, but they shot the ball 49.5 percent from the field, which is good enough for seventh in the entire country.<\/p>\n Defensively is where this team made its mark in 2013-14. It was led by Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year Tony Wroblicky, and it allowed just 58.6 points per contest\u2014the eighth-best number in the nation.<\/p>\n The big question is whether or not Wisconsin\u2019s offensive fire power shows up.<\/p>\n That will determine how close this game truly is when the clock strikes zero, and how close American University can come to pulling an upset. Many people are already looking toward a third-round matchup between Wisconsin and either No. 7 Oregon or No. 10 BYU, but you can\u2019t ignore the defensive prowess that the American Eagles bring to the table.<\/p>\n The Badgers year after year are known for their strong defense, but this year\u2019s team has the offensive firepower to complement the tradition.<\/p>\n The hope for Wisconsin is that a subpar strength of schedule for American University keeps them underprepared for what the Tournament will hold, especially with the Badgers having six players who consistently score between eight and about 14 points per night.<\/p>\n The truth is that this game is going to go down as a battle between talent and potential. The American Eagles have all the potential in the world, and quite frankly, they\u2019re ahead of schedule when it comes to most people\u2019s preseason projections.<\/p>\n That said, Wisconsin is the superior team when looking at roster depth, and it should walk away with a win.<\/p>\n A few trends to consider here are as follows: In their last three games overall, American is 3-0 against the spread. The score has also gone under the projected total in those three outings, giving us reason to believe the Eagles could keep this one low-scoring and close until the end.<\/p>\n Wisconsin is also 1-4 ATS in its last five outings.<\/p>\n They\u2019ll have a \u201cwin is a win\u201d mentality in this one, giving them a closer victory than some project.<\/p>\n Prediction: American University +13<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NCAA Tournament – Eagles vs Badgers Pick The 15th-seeded American University Eagles are slated to face the No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers Thursday afternoon, and while it wouldn\u2019t be advised to choose the Eagles as your Cinderella team this season, there are reasons to believe they could cover the spread in their second-round matchup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":74105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1415],"tags":[61353,61507,61508,61504,61505,2573,386,61506,11979,11936,2608,2571],"class_list":["post-74103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-2014-ncaa-tournament","tag-american-university","tag-american-university-eagles","tag-american-university-eagles-vs-wisconsin-badgers","tag-american-university-vs-wisconsin","tag-badgers","tag-eagles","tag-eagles-vs-badgers","tag-round-2","tag-west-bracket","tag-wisconsin","tag-wisconsin-badgers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74103"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74106,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74103\/revisions\/74106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNo. 15 American University (20-12, 13-5 Patriot) @ No. 2 Wisconsin (26-7, 12-6 Big Ten)<\/strong>
\nThursday, March 20 12:40 PM ET TruTV<\/strong>
\nWest Region \u2013 Second Round<\/strong>
\nSpread: Wisconsin -13<\/strong>
\n [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p>\nAmerican University<\/h3>\n
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\n[ad-6571516]<\/p>\nWisconsin<\/h3>\n