It took the Providence Friars almost all season, but they finally got the away from home wins they were looking for last week at the Big East Tournament. Providence had tried and failed numerous times to take down quality opponents on the road, yet Madison Square Garden was kind to the Friars. The school took out Creighton and Xavier on its way to a Big East Championship Final and took Villanova to overtime before falling.
Now, the Friars are hoping that another NBA venue is good to them. They will kick off the action on Friday when they take on the Texas A&M Aggies.
This war on the floor will go down Friday, March 16, 2018, at 12:15 p.m. ET at Spectrum Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina. The game will be televised live on CBS. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game throughout March Madness.
Opening NCAAB Basketball Betting Odds at BookMaker.eu
Texas A&M -3.5
Providence +3.5
Over/Under 138
Oddsmakers have not been a big fan of Providence all season long. The Friars peripherals aren’t that good, but the team keeps finding ways to win games. They were favored in just five Big East games all season long and were never favored away from home. That has created some nice moneyline wins as they were an underdog per the CBB betting odds against Marquette, DePaul, Georgetown, and St. John’s.
Texas A&M has been streaky all year long. The Aggies started the year 11-1 with wins over West Virginia, Oklahoma State, USC, and Penn State, covering the NCAAB betting line easily with double-digit victories in all four games. Since that point, they have alternated winning streaks and losing streaks without any real rhyme or reason.
Matchup to Watch
The Aggies have a clear size advantage over the Friars, so it will be interesting to see what the Friars do to try to counter it. In the Big East, there aren’t many teams with a lot of size as the teams in that conference tend to play more finesse, stylistic basketball, but the Aggies have some big bodies that could wreak havoc in the interior.
Tyler Davis and Robert Williams are both 6’10 bangers that utilize their strength in the paint. Both Davis and Williams are nearly averaging double-doubles this season and both are good at getting easy baskets.
Providence might be able to mitigate Williams by sending him to the line. The Friars have a deep bench and might use a player like Kalif Young to force Williams to make his free throws. On the season, he is shooting 46.9 percent from the line and it makes a lot more sense to send him to the line than to give up an easy two because he gets good position on you.
Key Stat
One of the most interesting things about Providence is that although this is a jump shooting team, the Friars don’t have any real dynamite shooters. Rodney Bullock is the team’s leading scorer, but he is an average shooter, and the team is outside the top 200 in both field goal percentage and three-point percentage.
What got Providence to this point is its ability to play perimeter defense. The guards are active and close out on shooters quickly, making it hard to put this team way. The Friars are allowing opponents to hit just 32.1 percent of their three-pointers this season.
Free March Madness ATS Picks
As much as I want to take the points and Providence due to how often this team has proved the naysayers wrong, I have to go with Texas A&M. This is simply a bad matchup for the Friars, who could have made a nice little run against another jump shooting team. The Aggies are going to use their size to punish the Friars in the paint and pick up the win.
NCAAB Basketball Betting Odds: Texas A&M 76, Providence 68
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