The No. 7 Michigan Wolverines will look to keep their incredible march to a national championship intact on Thursday night when they cross paths with the No. 3 Oregon Ducks in the Sweet 16. Both of these teams battled back to win their round of 32 games in comeback fashion, and each of these teams loves to let loose from beyond the arc. With that the case, expect to see a ton of 3 balls raining down all game long.
Don't miss this Sweet 16 showdown from the Sprint Center in Kansas City at 7:09 ET on Thursday, March 23. Catch every moment of the game live on CBS.
Sweet 16 Odds at BookMaker.eu
Michigan Wolverines -1 -115
Oregon Ducks +1 -105
Over/Under 146.5
Odds Analysis
The Higher seeded Wolverines opened up as 1 point favorites for this contest at -107 juice. While there’s been no movement in the number overall, the juice has climbed to -115 in favor of Michigan due to the fact that 69 percent of the bets already taken expect Big Blue to increase their incredible win streak to eight straight.
The total has stayed put after opening up at 146.5, but some 147s have popped up at other shops. A whopping 93 percent of the betting action expects to see a high scorer raising the juice to lay to -115. Makes sense when you take into account the plethora of 3 point attempts likely to be taken by each team.
How They Got Here
It’s scary to think, but that near plane disaster just might have occurred at the perfect time. It brought the team even closer together, and since it happened, the Wolverines haven’t been beat. They ran right through Illinois, Purdue and Minnesota before taking Wisconsin behind the woodshed in the Big 12 tournament title game.
They then outlasted Oklahoma State in the first round of the NCAA tournament, and followed it up by outscoring Louisville 45-33 in the second half to punch its ticket to the Sweet 16. If not for Jawun Evans last second made three, Derrick Walton Jr. and his mates would enter this tilt winners of seven straight against the spread.
Before losing to the Arizona Wildcats in the title game of the Pac-12 tournament, the Ducks had rattled off eight straight wins. While that loss stung, the loss of Chris Boucher for the rest of the season in the semifinals against Cal hurt even more. Still, Dana Altman’s kids responded by hanging tough with the Cats before ultimately falling 83-80 as 1.5 point favorites. The pointspread defeat was the fourth in their last six games.
They did however get back in the win column in the first round against Iona winning by 16 as 15 point favorites, but dropped their third in four tries in a non-covering comeback win against a game Rhode Island club to secure a spot in the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.
Comparable Games of Note
You have to go back to 2014 to find the last time these teams squared off. Michigan won that game 70-63 as 4 point neutral court favorites in the Legends Classic in Brooklyn. Derrick Walton Jr. scored 6 points, while Dillon Brooks was the Ducks second leading scorer with 14 points.
These teams have one opponent in common from this season in UCLA. The Ducks partook in a pair of games with the Bruins that went down to the wire. They beat them 89-87 on a last second 3 pointer by Brooks, but then fell 82-79 in their trip to Pauley Pavilion. Michigan hung with UCLA for a half in its trip to Tinseltown with the game tied at 50 apiece, but then got blown out in the second half and lost by a 102-84 final count.
Michigan last made it to the Sweet 16 back in 2014 when Nik Stauskas helped lead it to the tight 73-71 win and push against the Tennessee Volunteers as 2 point favorites. The year before that, they outlasted Kansas in overtime in the Sweet 16 and went on to lose to Louisville in the National Championship Game.
The Ducks experienced some Sweet 16 success last season when it pounded Duke 82-68 as 3 point favorites. Before that, the last time they got past the first weekend of the Big Dance came back in 2013 when it dropped a 77-69 decision to Louisville but covered as 11 point underdogs.
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