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Old School Meets New School
The 2017 NCAA Tournament is yet to have a game decided at the buzzer. The first round action was a snore, but things really started to heat up over the weekend when top seeds Villanova, Duke, and Louisville went down in defeat. North Carolina and Gonzaga got their wake up calls, while Kansas cruised past Michigan State and enters the second week of the tournament the odds on favorite to win it all. With the field now whittled down to 16, let’s go hunting for value on the national championship futures odds....
After rising to the first No. 1 ranking in school history, the Baylor Bears would have been disappointed if they didn’t make it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Baylor started the season strong, sitting with a 20-1 record at one point, but things came apart after that with the team finishing up 5-6 down the stretch prior to the start of the Big Dance. Now they are likely the favorites to win an East bracket that has been decimated with the losses of Villanova and Duke, but need to beat the South Carolina Gamecocks if they want to realize Final Four aspirations....
Although all of the No. 1 seeds were tested in their showdowns to see who would get to the Sweet 16, only the Wisconsin Badgers could finish the job and actually send a No. 1 crashing out of the tournament. Wisconsin used a staunch defensive effort to stall the game against Villanova and limit the Wildcats’ possessions on its way to a 65-62 win on Saturday. The Badgers can’t celebrate the win for too long though as they have to knock off the Florida Gators for their dance to continue....
The Gonzaga Bulldogs hardly played the part of a No. 1 seed through their first two NCAA Tournament games failing to cover the closing pointspread against South Dakota State and Northwestern. Should they not be able to improve upon their overall play in the Sweet 16 back on the west coast, Huggy Bear’s West Virginia Mountaineers will be more than happy to send the Zags back home disappointed with their tails between their legs....
A pair of regular season champions that lost the first game in their respective conference tournaments will close the action out in the Midwest Region on Thursday night when the No. 4 Purdue Boilermakers and No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks meet up on the hardwood for the first time since 2012. Both squads are littered with top notch talent like Caleb Swanigan and Josh Jackson, so this region semifinal is certain to deliver!...
The No. 7 Michigan Wolverines will look to keep their incredible march to a national championship intact on Thursday night when they cross paths with the No. 3 Oregon Ducks in the Sweet 16. Both of these teams battled back to win their round of 32 games in comeback fashion, and each of these teams loves to let loose from beyond the arc. With that the case, expect to see a ton of 3 balls raining down all game long....
History has not been kind to No. 11 seeds that advance to face a No. 2 seed in the Sweet 16, but the Xavier Musketeers are looking to change that. The lowest-seeded team remaining in the NCAA Tournament, Xavier sure didn’t look its seed in a second round thrashing of Florida State in perhaps the most dominant performance of the tournament. But that’s old news, and now it’s on to San Jose for a showdown with the No. 2 Arizona Wildcats....
Even the best teams in the NCAA Tournament need to catch a few breaks to become national champions. If the Gonzaga Bulldogs go on to win the title, we can look back on their second round victory over Northwestern as the game where they got a big break. Officials failed to call a goaltending on the Zags late in the second half in game where they let a 22-point lead dwindle to five. The Bulldogs had the lead and may have won the game, but they should feel grateful that they are playing West Virginia in the Sweet 16....
The Kansas Jayhawks may have been playing possum in the Big 12 Tournament. Their loss to TCU likely cost them the No. 1 overall seed and showed the little guys that Goliath could be tamed. I guess Kansas didn’t want the burden of the top overall team, and after watching what happened to Villanova, it isn’t surprising. But the Jayhawks are rolling after winning their first two NCAA Tournament games by a combined 58 points. Up next are the Purdue Boilermakers in the Sweet 16....
Running through the Big Ten Tournament after what they went through, the Michigan Wolverines were a great story entering the NCAA’s. After taking down No. 2 Louisville in the second round on Sunday, the Wolverines could now be considered a serious contender for the national title. The No. 3 seed Oregon Ducks avoided the upset with a second round comeback victory over spunky Rhode Island and now must deal with the darlings of the Tournament....
The Ole Miss Rebels knocked off the top seed in the NIT Tournament last time out and hopes to keep it rolling to a berth in the semifinals. After a victory over Syracuse, the No. 5 seeded Rebels will now face off against the No. 6 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the quarterfinals....
The TCU Horned Frogs came away with a thrilling upset of the top-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes last time out and are now a victory away from making it to the semifinals of the NIT. The fourth-seeded Horned Frogs will face off against the No. 6 seed Richmond Spiders to see who will emerge victorious out of their region....
The smoking hot No. 2 Duke Blue Devils continued upon their torrid path to a championship on Friday night by toying with the overmatched No. 15 Troy Trojans. Winners of six straight both straight up and against the spread, Coach K’s squad will be out to log their seventh in a row against the No. 7 South Carolina Gamecocks. Frank Martin’s squad has come up with some big wins this season, and could be in line for another one in this quasi-road tilt with the Dookies....
Greenville will host a pair of ACC/SEC matchups in the second-round on Sunday. The first of which pits Mike Anderson’s No. 8 Arkansas Razorbacks against the region’s top-seed North Carolina Tar Heels. These programs last met on the college hardwood in the round of 32 back in the 2015 NCAA Tournament. UNC went on to win that game 87-78 to punch its ticket to the Sweet 16 which is something the Hogs haven’t done in over 20 years....
Kansas is a popular national championship pick but the road has already toughened considerably after it cruised to a first round win. Michigan State has been inconsistent all season but always seems to play well in March and would love to pull this upset.Of all the second round matchups involving top seeds, Kansas seems like it could be one of the most in danger of losing. However, the Jayhawks are still clearly the superior team and should be a pretty comfortable favorite....
USC will be the underdog again but the No. 3 Baylor Bears will be wary when they face off with a spot in the Sweet Sixteen on the line. Baylor had some trouble early on with New México State in the first round but eventually pulled away for an easy win.The Bears have the stronger body of work and will certainly be favored in this one, but USC has paid off nicely for those who have backed it thus far and would love another upset....
Even though Wichita State was seeded lower than Dayton in their first round game, the Shockers were the favorites and came away with the win. They will be the underdogs in this one but have played well all season, so it’s a tough draw for Kentucky as they aim to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.Kentucky has some of the most talented freshmen in the country and the question will be how well they work together on a big stage such as this. The Shockers have more experience and an outright upset may be unlikely but it’s not out of the question....
The Michigan Wolverines have become the darlings of the postseason after their dramatic episode with their plane sliding off the runway, to their run through the Big Ten tournament, to a first round beating of Oklahoma State in the NCAA Tournament. One month ago the Wolverines were on the bubble, now they look like the team to beat in the Midwest Region. The Louisville Cardinals, back in the Dance after a self-imposed ban last season, might have something to say about that....
The Oregon Ducks passed the first test, but things will pick up considerably from here on out. Playing without star big man Chris Boucher, the Ducks were able to use their superior athleticism to take down Iona in the opening round. Their next opponent, the Rhode Island Rams, are a bigger and stronger group than the Gaels and could provide a stiff challenge for a team many believe has the pieces for a Final Four run. How quickly Oregon figures out how to play without Boucher will tell us a lot about how far they can fly....
The first and only NCAA Tournament for Lonzo Ball has been a roller coaster. And fortunately for the UCLA Bruins, it hasn’t stopped yet. Ball had an awkward fall in the first half of UCLA’s opening victory over Kent State, but still contributed 15 points and led the Bruins’ efficient offense against the overmatched Golden Flashes. UCLA has the talent to play for a national championship but must avoid the letdowns in their game that caused the score to be much closer than it should have been. The Cincinnati Bearcats will certainly make UCLA pay close attention with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line....
Villanova will be favored in this one, but it certainly won’t be a cakewalk. The Badgersare a solid opponent who came away with a decisive win over Virginia Tech in the first round.The Wildcats are one of the favorites for the national championship, but must be crisper if they want to make a deep run in this tournament. They will aim to flex their muscle in this one and move on to the Sweet Sixteen....
The Mountaineers only beat Bucknell by six points in their game. Neither team was particularly impressive to begin the tournament and since the level of competition has gone up on both sides, better efforts will be needed to advance. West Virginia is the higher seed and it may be the slight favorite, but this is the type of game that could go either way.A Sweet Sixteen berth will be on the line when Notre Dame and West Virginia face off....
The Illinois Fighting Illini put forth one of their better performances of the season in their NIT opener against Valparaiso. It came as quite the surprise with long-time head coach John Groce getting axed a day prior. The win and cover pushed them into the second round of the tournament where they will once again get to play a home game against a Boise State Broncos squad that just went into Salt Lake City and took care of the disinterested Utah Utes....
A number of teams that just missed out on going to the dance fell in embarrassing fashion in the first round of the NIT. The Region 3 No. 1 seed Illinois State Redbirds didn’t follow suit after going out and handling UC Irvine with ease to remain undefeated as a host. Their 16-0 home record will however be challenged on Monday night when they welcome the No. 4 seed UCF Knights into Normal with a trip to the quarterfinals on the line....
Moving up the seeding chart has done wonders for the Purdue Boilermakers. The No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region held up its end of the deal with a first round win over Vermont, ending the nation’s longest winning streak in the process. Purdue also advanced to the second day of play for the first time in three seasons after falling as the No. 9 seed two years ago and being upset as a No. 5 seed last year. The Boilers can advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2009 with a win over the Iowa State Cyclones.This war on the floor will go down Saturday, March 18, 2017, at 9:40 p.m. ET at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. The game will be televised live on TBS. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Saturday schedule....
