Good luck gentlemen
The Pick: My 150 Dime winner is the Creighton Blue Jays
The Line: The current line is +8 1/2 at the majority of books in Vegas and offshore as of 9:00 AM EST. Be sure to shop around for the best line available.
My Analysis
This one is going right down to the wire.
First and foremost, Auburn should not have been the #1 overall seed in this tournament. It should have been the Duke Blue Devils, no questions asked.
In their opening round game against 16 seed Alabama State, they played like a team that entered the tournament having lost 3 of their last 4 games.
With just over 3 minutes to go in the first half, they led 29-27.
Now in comparison, look at what the other #1 seeds did in their opening round games with just over 3 minutes to go in the first half.
Duke 46-22. Houston 44-20. Florida 53-21. Just let those 3 scores sink in for a moment.
Yes, Auburn pushed it to 10 at the half and won by 20, but they never came close to covering the 31 1/2.
Let's be clear here: Creighton is not Alabama St.
The Blue Jays ran a very good Louisville team out of the gym in their opening round game 89-75 shooting 57% from the floor and 46% from 3.
Since their January 11th loss at Marquette, this Creighton is 16-4 SU their last 20 with the 4 losses to tourney teams: St.Johns twice, Xavier and Uconn.
Head coach Greg McDermott got a little taste of the SEC earlier this year and yes, they lost both but covered.
In Vegas in November catching +4 1/2 against A&M lost 77-73 and in December at Alabama (+10) lost 83-75.
This is a very fundamentally sound basketball team that is a hard team to blowout because of their 3 seniors in Kalkbrenner, Ashworth andNeal,
The 3 combined for 65 points in the win over Louisville (Neal 29, Ashworth 22, Kalkbrenner 14).
Now comes Auburn.
The Tigers just haven't been a juggernaut away from home since their early season success in their non conference schedule.
They played 9 conference road games and struggled badly at Texas winning by 5, at South Carolina by 3, at Georgia by 2 and lost at A&M by 11.
In the SEC tourney they should have lost to Ole Miss and then proceeded to lose to Tennessee 70-65.
And then of course the pathetic first half performance against Alabama St.
I am all over the near double digit dog here. To well coached, 3 seniors playing perhaps their last game, all a recipe for an upset.
It would not surprise me if they have a chance late to shock the world and send the first #1 seed home.
Give me the points all night long.
The Pick: My 150 Dime winner is the Creighton Blue Jays
The Line: The current line is +8 1/2 at the majority of books in Vegas and offshore as of 9:00 AM EST. Be sure to shop around for the best line available.
My Analysis
This one is going right down to the wire.
First and foremost, Auburn should not have been the #1 overall seed in this tournament. It should have been the Duke Blue Devils, no questions asked.
In their opening round game against 16 seed Alabama State, they played like a team that entered the tournament having lost 3 of their last 4 games.
With just over 3 minutes to go in the first half, they led 29-27.
Now in comparison, look at what the other #1 seeds did in their opening round games with just over 3 minutes to go in the first half.
Duke 46-22. Houston 44-20. Florida 53-21. Just let those 3 scores sink in for a moment.
Yes, Auburn pushed it to 10 at the half and won by 20, but they never came close to covering the 31 1/2.
Let's be clear here: Creighton is not Alabama St.
The Blue Jays ran a very good Louisville team out of the gym in their opening round game 89-75 shooting 57% from the floor and 46% from 3.
Since their January 11th loss at Marquette, this Creighton is 16-4 SU their last 20 with the 4 losses to tourney teams: St.Johns twice, Xavier and Uconn.
Head coach Greg McDermott got a little taste of the SEC earlier this year and yes, they lost both but covered.
In Vegas in November catching +4 1/2 against A&M lost 77-73 and in December at Alabama (+10) lost 83-75.
This is a very fundamentally sound basketball team that is a hard team to blowout because of their 3 seniors in Kalkbrenner, Ashworth andNeal,
The 3 combined for 65 points in the win over Louisville (Neal 29, Ashworth 22, Kalkbrenner 14).
Now comes Auburn.
The Tigers just haven't been a juggernaut away from home since their early season success in their non conference schedule.
They played 9 conference road games and struggled badly at Texas winning by 5, at South Carolina by 3, at Georgia by 2 and lost at A&M by 11.
In the SEC tourney they should have lost to Ole Miss and then proceeded to lose to Tennessee 70-65.
And then of course the pathetic first half performance against Alabama St.
I am all over the near double digit dog here. To well coached, 3 seniors playing perhaps their last game, all a recipe for an upset.
It would not surprise me if they have a chance late to shock the world and send the first #1 seed home.
Give me the points all night long.