Two four seeds, a one and a huge underdog battle for a bid to the National Championship
Ninth-ranked Wichita State joins a group of only seven teams seeded lower than No. 6 to reach the Final Four since 1985
The March Madness continues Saturday starting with matchup few brackets predicted when the NCAA tournament betting began just over two weeks ago: Wichita State vs. Louisville.
Wichita State has written a Cinderella script with its run to the Final Four, winning the West with wins over Southern, Gonzaga, La Salle and Ohio State. The win over No. 1 seeded Gonzaga turned heads and it only drew more attention to the win over La Salle in the Sweet 16 round. Considered the weakest region, no one saw the Shockers edging Ohio State last weekend.
It’s made the Shockers a 10-point dog with the majority of sportsbooks and 61-percent of the action is on the Cardinals to cover. Sports betting sites are also reporting 78-percent of the money coming in on the over which isn’t surprising, given Louisville’s run of eight-straight overs.
First halves for Louisville have set the tone through the past three rounds with totals against Duke (67), Oregon (76) and Colorado State (76) all surpassing the low number of 61.5 set for the first-half of this contest. Wichita State has done a fantastic job defending the three, holding Ohio State to just 20-percent from beyond the arc and in the four tourney games thus far, the Shockers have held opponents to no more than 36-percent shooting overall.
Louisville has had plenty of time to prep for this game and can make adjustments as well as any team so we expect them to ‘slow play’ the Shockers early and look for weaknesses. For the first-half of this game, find a total of 61.5 or more and bet the under.
***Take the First-half Under 61.5 points
MICHIGAN vs. SYRACUSE
Either one of these teams will be an underdog if they advance to face Louisville in the championship game and both have faced adversity on their road to the Final Four. The Orange defeated Montana, California and No. 1 seeded Indiana before disposing of Marquette while the Wolverines got past South Dakota State, VCU and top-ranked Kansas before a 79-59 win vs. Florida.
Michigan has earned its way to this point with convincing wins but Syracuse held three of its four opponents to less than 51 points. Only Cal was able to reach 60 in the second round. This game will likely be decided in the final minutes and given the Orange’s defensive capabilities we are happy taking all the points we can find. Pinnacle Sports currently offers Syracuse at +1.5 points and we’ll ride with the dog.
Pick: Take Syracuse
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