Oklahoma encountered its share of stumbles down the stretch to the NCAA Tournament, but coach Lon Kruger and his group of veterans is poised to make a deep run in March if everything clicks. VCU also is an experienced club and won’t be scared away by the Big 12 big boys, especially considering the number of upsets we’ve seen so far in the tournament.
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VCU Rams +6.5
Oklahoma Sooners -6.5
Over/Under: 146
HOW THE VCU RAMS CAN COVER THE SPREAD
New coach or not, the same old tournament-tested Virginia Commonwealth showed up for the NCAA Tournament. Despite being a lower seed in their first round matchup with Oregon State, the No. 10 Rams were a 4-point favorite and covered in their 75-67 victory.
Maybe Vegas knows more than the selection committee. VCU played like an experienced club, holding off the Beavers when things got tight in the second half.
Even with all their tournament success over the past few years, including a Final Four run in 2011, the Rams are using the lack of respect as motivation. And with regular visits to the NCAA Tournament, leading scorer Melvin Johnson said the Rams aren’t any less excited this time.
VCU’s four-guard lineup of Johnson, Korey Billbury, Jonathan Williams and JeQuan Lewis tormented Oregon State, neutralizing the Beavers’ height advantage. The ability of those players, along with forward Mo Alie-Cox, who was lethal inside, gives the Rams a nice matchup with Oklahoma’s group. The Rams shot 48.2 percent from the field and made 17 of 21 free throws on Friday. But they need to be better from distance than their 4 of 20 showing to keep up with the Sooners.
HOW THE OKLAHOMA SOONERS CAN COVER THE SPREAD
Oklahoma held off a pesky Cal State Bakersfield bunch in the first round, escaping with an 82-68 victory. Given how the games played out over the first two days, getting a win was more important than style points, and the Sooners managed.
Buddy Hield has been a model of consistency for the Sooners all season. He actually has more 30-point games than he has games with less than 20 points scored. Even when teams focus on stopping the Player of the Year candidate, the strategy rarely works.
Bakersfield had a plan to slow him down, and it worked for a while. Then, Hield got loose and did his usual damage. He scored 16 of his 27 points in the final 13:23 to help OU knock off the stubborn Roadrunners.
The Sooners will have a height advantage against the undersized Rams with starting forwards Khadeem Lattin and Ryan Spangler. They will face an opponent that is at least a couple of inches shorter, setting up a potential rebounding advantage. The bigs will have to contain VCU’s Mo Alie-Cox, who scored 20 points as the only legitimate down-low threat.
ANALYSIS AND ODDS PREDICTION
VCU’s expectations were lowered when former coach Shaka Smart took his “Havoc” style with him to Texas. But the Rams still create havoc and love to speed up the pace and force turnovers. They rank sixth in the nation in steals and 13th in forcing turnovers. VCU caught a break when Oregon State played without one of its top players in Tres Tinkle, who had an injured foot and took 13 points and six rebounds to the shelf. The Rams will have to contend with a healthy bunch of Sooners, making their task a little more difficult.
OU leans heavily on its group of veterans and they came through by holding off the Roadrunners on Friday. The Sooners do some pace-pushing of their own and are really good at it. They average slightly better than 80 points and are second nationally in three-point shooting at 42.9 percent. OU hit 55 percent of its threes and 50 percent overall against the Roadrunners, but struggled at 60 percent from the free throw line. Improvement in that area will send the Sooners to Anaheim next week.
Oklahoma 78, VCU 71
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Mobile betting lines are updated by the minute, so click here to start gambling on thrilling live action at BookMaker Sportsbook! The matchup between the VCU Rams and Oklahoma Sooners will go down Sunday, March 20, 2016 at 5:15 p.m. ET at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The matchup will be televised live on CBS.
