Two of the best big men in the entire country are Jakob Poeltl and Domantas Sabonis. College basketball fans will get a chance to see these two bang in the paint for a full 40 minutes and perhaps beyond when the Utah Utes and the Gonzaga Bulldogs go to war for the right to get to the Sweet 16 in the Midwest Region.
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HOW THE GONZAGA BULLDOGS CAN COVER THE SPREAD
Step No. 1 for the Bulldogs is to stay out of foul trouble. Sabonis ended up fouling out late against Seton Hall in the opening round of the tourney, and Kyle Wiltjer was in foul trouble for much of the evening before having an uneventful last 10 minutes of the game. Poeltl is the type of player who commands all sorts of attention, and if the bigs get into foul issues, Mark Few doesn't really have much of anyone to bring off of his bench aside from his starters that can match up with the Austrian.
When Sabonis isn't out there, Wiltjer is going to have to draw Poeltl away from the basket on defense. That's a lot easier said than done, especially knowing that the big man has such a great wingspan and speed back to the basket that even defending against a three from the corner won't necessarily preclude him from being in on rebounds.
Wiltjer wasn't great against the Hall either, as he only had 13 points and seven boards. Sabonis covered up for a ton of the errors, as did the fact that the Pirates were absolutely gassed.
Those factors won't be in play against Utah, and that means Wiltjer is going to have to pick up his offensive game.
HOW THE UTAH UTES CAN COVER THE SPREAD
Fresno State sort of hung around with Utah a lot longer than it should have, as that game was really never totally put away even though there wasn't a point that the No. 3 seed truly felt threatened either.
The Bulldogs got sloppy with the basketball with 19 turnovers. Lorenzo Bonam was fantastic with his decisions with the basketball in terms of when to shoot and when to dish the rock, but he also committed five of the 19 turnovers.
Jordan Loveridge will have to provide an outside presence against a lanky Gonzaga front line. He hit four threes against Fresno State, including three in the first half to help keep the Utes at arm's length.
ANALYSIS AND ODDS PREDICTION
This really isn't a great matchup for Utah. The Bulldogs have enough size on the inside to at least give Poeltl some problems, and if the big man ends up in foul trouble, we don't see any way the Utes are winning this basketball game.
Gonzaga looked like a team on a mission in Denver on Thursday night, and we have to wonder if this might be a team poised to go on a magical run. We've always known that the talent was here with Sabonis, Wiltjer and the rest of the really strong guards, and if the Bulldogs can play defense as well against Utah as they did against Seton Hall, they'll stick around for next week.
Gonzaga 68, Utah 64
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