UNC Wilmington played the Virginia Cavaliers surprisingly tough out the early part of this game, but a couple big games from Marial Shayok off the bench and London Perrantes on the outside allowed Virginia to come away with the victory. Now, they’re on to the Round of 32 where they’ll meet up with the No.4 seeded Florida Gators having handled East Tennessee State in an easier game than the Cavs experienced, winning by 15.
This war on the floor in this NCAA Tournament will go down Saturday, March 18, 2017, at TDB p.m. ET at the Amway Center in Orlando, FL. The game will be televised live on TBD.
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The Cavaliers entered the tourney as 8-point favorites over the Seahawks, but while Virginia was able to advance, UNC Wilmington covered the spread in the 76-71 and even held the lead SU for a good chunk of the first half and a small portion of time early in the second half.
Virginia will have to play a tighter, well-rounded game against a much tougher Florida opponent. The Gators, like Virginia under in most games, are a strong defensive team and that should lead to a depressed point total with both of these schools going head-to-head.
Look for the Gators to be slightly favored due to seeding, but these two teams will be neck-and-neck all game. Look for a very good back and forth affair. With that, the underdog should get plenty of play and the spread is likely to get even narrower rather than wider.
Player to Watch
With the Cavs so strong on the defensive end of the court, the Gators will need to get offense from somewhere.
It was the defense that tightened up in the second half of their first round matchup with East Tennessee State allowing them to pull ahead and win by 15 after going to the locker room at the half up just 33-32.
For Florida, the offense did end up scoring 80 in the win with Devin Robinson leading the way, scoring 24 points while shooting 10-for-17 from the floor and adding a team leading seven rebounds along with a pair of blocks.
That’s the second straight strong game for Robinson after he recorded a double-double in the overtime loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament. Prior to that, he went three straight games without reaching double digits and had scored more than nine just twice in his last eight games.
Robinson is especially key as he’s the team’s leading scorer from inside the paint. KeVaughn Allen and Canyon Barry are both averaging more PPG this season, but Robinson is crucial for this team inside, particularly with the injury to John Egbunu last month.
Coaching Angle
There are a few elements at play around the Cavs’ Tony Bennett. First and foremost, he’s one of the better coaches in the game right now having built up the Virginia program, bringing it back to prominence.
It was a February losing streak that cost Virginia a higher seeding than it currently enjoys and Bennett was able to pull the Cavs out of that funk. He’ll have to motivate again after a tough first game, but we already got some of that in the second half on Thursday.
Overall, Bennett is good at preparing his team for the opposition. He makes it difficult to matchup schemes and is good at getting his players to buy in. That shows, particularly on defense, where Virginia is holding the opposition to just 56.1 PPG.
Perhaps a bigger impact, however, may be some of the rumors circling around Bennett and a possible massive offer from Illinois.
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This game should be a good, close, low-scoring affair with two strong defenses. Look for a very close game with the underdog a good bet, particularly if the spread gets more than a point or two in either direction.
For now, look for the Cavaliers to come out ahead. They’re the most efficient defensive team in the country and they showed they can slow even the best offenses in a game against UNC not too long ago.
Robinson did a great job inside the paint in his first game of the tourney, but can we really expect more than 20 out of him again? No. Particularly not against Virginia. The Gators will miss Egbunu. They haven’t been the same team since they lost him and the Cavs can exploit that weakness with some excellent schemes from Bennett.
College Basketball Odds: Virginia 63, Florida 61
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