The San Diego State Aztecs were amongst the many teams this year which were left out of the NCAA Tournament due to the fact that they lost in their conference tournaments. Some flailed out of the NIT in short order, but they've managed to keep their wits about them in reaching the Final Four of college hoops' secondary tournament. Next in their way will be the George Washington Colonials.
College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
George Washington Colonials +3
San Diego State Aztecs –3
Over/Under 128.5
HOW THE GEORGE WASHINGTON COLONIALS CAN COVER THE SPREAD
The Colonials have to use their size in this game to their advantage. They've got two excellent bigs in Tyler Cavanaugh and Kevin Larsen, one of which has had a double-double in all three of the NIT games.
The big question we have for G-Dub is whether it can knock down enough threes to win a game like this. Cavanaugh and Larsen are good three-point shooters, but they don't do a lot of it. The Colonials have hit 8.3 threes per game in the NIT, and that's a good number for a game like this where points are going to be at a premium.
However, they're going to have to find some defense, too. They picked up 12 steals against Hofstra in the opening round of the tournament, but they haven't been nearly as efficient defensively since then against Florida and Monmouth.
HOW THE SAN DIEGO STATE AZTECS CAN COVER THE SPREAD
George Washington is going to try to get the pace of this game up, but the Aztecs can't allow them to do that if they're going to win this game. Sure, they put up 93 against Washington in the second round of this tournament, but this is a far different game and one which won't feature the nasty Viejas Center crowd on their side.
Trey Kell and Jeremy Hemsley have had a respectable tournament, but Winston Shepard is the man of the hour for San Diego State. He had a triple-double against IPFW and had a double-double with 20 points and 10 boards against Washington, and we figure he's going to have to be good for at least seven or eight rebounds and 15 points or so in this game to have enough offense to give the Aztecs a shot at covering this spread.
ANALYSIS AND ODDS PREDICTION
Pace of play will be a huge factor on Tuesday night in the second NIT semifinal, and we think it'll end up favoring the Aztecs. They generally had their way when it came to slowing down games over the course of this season, and a lot of that is due to the great play of Shepard as a ball-distributing forward.
San Diego State doesn't turn the ball over a lot, and it shouldn't find itself in that situation against the Colonials either. It's been a nice run for GW, but we think this is a really bad matchup.
Unless the Colonials can exploit their size in a massive way to cover up their guard play, they'll see their season come to an end on Tuesday night.
San Diego State 66, George Washington 58
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Real-time spreads, totals, props and moneyline odds are all available by clicking here, so start betting with BookMaker today! The NIT Final Four game between the George Washington Colonials and the San Diego State Aztecs is scheduled for Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 9:30 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden. Catch the game live on ESPN.
