For the first time ever, the Northwestern Wildcats are finally a part of March Madness. On Selection Sunday, Evanston exploded with joy as the Wildcats were selected to head to the NCAA Tournament and the committee even showed them respect with an 8-seed. They will be facing another school known more for its academics than its athletics on Thursday, when they take on the Vanderbilt Commodores. Three wins over Florida did the trick for Vanderbilt, but many were surprised to see just how ‘in’ this team was with a record of 19-15.
This war on the floor will go down Thursday, March 16, 2017 at 4:30 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
Vanderbilt -1.5 vs. Northwestern
Northwestern may have finished the season 23-11, but the Wildcats are an underdog against Vanderbilt here. That may be due to what happened to Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament. After impressive victories over both Rutgers and Maryland, the Wildcats were absolutely blasted by a Wisconsin team that has been slumping. The Badgers beat the Wildcats by 28 to send them to their fifth loss in their last nine.
Vanderbilt finished the season on a tear and although it lost in the SEC semifinals, the committee felt the strength of this team’s wins were enough to put it in the NCAA Tournament without much of an argument. The Commodores won seven of their last nine games after an awful 20 point loss to Missouri, covering eight straight before the loss to Arkansas in the SEC Tournament. Under has been a great bet in Vandy’s games outside of Nashville, with a record of 13-4-1.
Matchup to Watch
Defense, defense, defense. That will be the theme of this one as both teams are pretty stout on the defensive end. Northwestern is holding opponents to a measly 65.1 PPG and is even better when you look at what it allows opponents to shoot from the floor. Opposing squads are hitting just 40.3 percent of their shots against the Wildcats this season.
Vanderbilt’s defense doesn’t have quite the numbers that Northwestern’s does, but this unit has turned it on in February and didn’t look back. The Commodores only allowed two opponents to score more than 67 points during their streak of eight straight covers, Florida and Kentucky. Everyone else was virtually held in check by this unit.
Key Stat
This Northwestern team has some real issues putting the ball in the basket. Of its three players that are averaging double digits this season, none are hitting better than 43 percent from the floor and leading scorer Bryant McIntosh is actually hitting less than 40 percent.
That poor shooting killed this team when it took on Wisconsin. The Badgers held them to just 18 of 52 shooting from the field and 3 of 14 from beyond the arc. Additionally, Northwestern was outrebounded by double figures on the glass with Sanjay Lumpkin dealing with foul issues and that’s something the Wildcats can’t have here.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
There shouldn’t be many points in this game. Neither of these teams can really light it up from the field and both prefer to play at a slower pace. Ken Pomeroy has these teams as two of the slowest in the NCAA Tournament with Northwestern averaging 64.9 possessions a game and Vanderbilt averaging 65.3 possessions a game after adjusting for opponents.
The under is something to take a long look at when the total comes out, but Vanderbilt seems to be a slightly better team. The Commodores had plenty of struggles earlier on in the season, but eventually put it together after a tough non-conference slate. Lay the short spread and hop on Vandy.
College Basketball Odds: Vanderbilt 65, Northwestern 61
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