It was a bit of a surprise when the Arizona Wildcats didn’t get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Arizona finished 30-4 and won both the Pac-12 regular season title and conference tournament, but the Wildcats can’t complain too much about staying West and being the No. 2 seed. Their fans will surely make the trek north to see their beloved Wildcats take on the North Dakota Fighting Hawks in the last game of the evening on Thursday.
This war on the floor will go down Thursday, March 16, 2017 at 9:50 p.m. ET at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City. The game will be televised live on TBS. We will have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every other NCAA Tournament matchup.
College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
Arizona -16.5 vs. North Dakota
Arizona didn’t post a bad loss all season long, with the Wildcats’ four losses being to Butler, Gonzaga, Oregon, and UCLA, all teams that got at least a No. 4 seed. They made up for the losses to UCLA and Oregon by defeating them as an underdog in back-to-back nights to claim the Pac-12 tournament championship. Zona was a stellar 13-5-2 ATS away from Tucson and wants to keep it up in Utah.
North Dakota finished atop the Big West in the regular season, but the Fighting Hawks had to scratch and claw their way to get the conference’s automatic bid. They squeaked by and covered against Idaho in the semifinals and needed overtime to knock off Weber State to get a spot in the tournament. They finished with a 17-9-2 ATS mark and are 7-2-1 against the number in their last 10.
Player to Watch
Arizona has gotten much better since Allonzo Trier was able to take the court. Trier had to sit out the entire non-conference slate to satisfy the NCAA, but this has been a completely different team since he has returned. Trier needed some time to get his feet back under him, but has been a force since he has returned, leading the team in scoring with 17.3 PPG.
The Wildcats were already good before Trier, but with him this is a national title contender. He is able to stretch the floor and helps this team in so many ways aside from his scoring. Having Trier frees up Lauri Markkanen to have more of an inside-outside game and makes this team extremely hard to shut down. They will be hard to stop as long as he is playing.
Key Stat
North Dakota is an extremely efficient team for a mid-major. The Fighting Hawks are hitting 48.3 percent of their shots from the field and all of their rotation players are hitting at least 44 percent from the floor. That sort of consistency is practically unheard of and the fact that anyone on this team can shoot makes this a dangerous side, especially for a 15-seed.
Even more impressively, this team can collectively rebound, with all six of their players averaging 20-plus minutes, pulling down at least 3.4 boards a night. Unlike many mid-majors they actually have some size and can use it effectively.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
Arizona is undoubtedly one of the best teams in the tournament, but this game could be a bit of a struggle for the Wildcats. North Dakota isn’t a typical 15-seed that you can just ignore and defeat with ease, but there’s also a reason why the Fighting Hawks were a middling team out of conference. They couldn’t defend against mediocre opponents from big conferences and it’s hard to see them stopping Arizona as well.
This will be one of the highest scoring games of the day and although North Dakota will put up points, there’s little doubt that Arizona will get the victory.
College Basketball Odds: Arizona 86, North Dakota 74
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