River City Sharps
The Cardinals got more of a scare than they would have liked in their first NCAA game as Manhattan took them to the wire, while the Billikens had a magical comeback that ended in an overtime win over NC State. We have had the opportunity to see both of these teams plays a lot this season. We are based in Kentucky, so we see Louisville play a lot, but we also closely watch the A10 so have seen plenty of St. Louis. The Billikens started off the season red hot but really struggled down the stretch...we were surprised they were even able to beat the Wolfpack on Thursday. The Cardinals were probably the hottest team in the country coming into the tourney, so they are playing great basketball right now. As you may know, Manhattan coach Steve Massiello was Pitino's lead assistant at Louisville and played for him at UK. According to several folks that watched the Louisville-Manhattan game, they said Massiello was yelling out the plays Louisville was going to run before they even got over half court! The point is that we don't think you should put too much stock into the close win the other night. Now St. Louis is a very good defensive team, but where they are going to struggle in this game is the speed and quickness of the guards. Jordair Jett is a really good player for St. Louis, but he's simply not quick enough to stay with Russ Smith from Louisville. The Cards are 20-7 ATS in all neutral court games over the last 3 seasons and 14-3 ATS in March games over the last 2 seasons. We think with a normal start time and a game under their belt, you will see a focused, solid effort from Louisville that leads to a double-digit win. The Sharps say...
3 UNITS - LOUISVILLE (-9)