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Photo: USATSI
Friday night lights, the battle of Texas. The No.1 and No. 2 seeds in Baylor and Houston face-off. The Baylor Bears though rank sixth nationally at 83.0 points per game and are No. 3 in offensive efficiency, averaging 123 points per 100 possessions per kenpom.com. This is in part of the dominant three-guard backcourt of Davion Mitchell, Jared Butler, and MaCio Teague. On the other end, Houston has only averaged 64 points in each of their last three tournament victories. What they lack in offense firepower, they stand strong in the defensive category, surrendering only 55.8 points in the NCAA Tournament. Are they strong enough to stop the No. 1 Baylor force?
Photo: Covers.com
For Saturday's matchup, It truly is Gonzaga's tournament to lose. They are eyeing for history, and are seeking to become the first go through the regular season and men’s tournament without a loss since the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers.
How big of favorites are the Zag's over the blue-blood cinderella story UCLA? Well, 14 point favorites. That’s the largest Final Four point spread in at least 25 years. Gonzaga is 4-0 against the spread in this year's tournament. Coming into this matchup, if the spread was more than 20 points, I would have had UCLA covering that, but 14 is that sweet spot, and Vegas is probably right on the money. However, Gonzaga has outscored all of their tournament opponents by an average of 24 points per game behind the dominant quarter of Jalen Suggs, Joel Ayayi, Drew Timme, and Corey Kispert.
Photo: Covers.com
My Picks
· Baylor -5 (-110)
· Baylor/Houston o134.5 (-110)
· 1H Spread – Baylor -2.5 (-105)
· Double Result – Baylor/Baylor (-129)
· Baylor ML (-220)
· Gonzaga -14 (-110)
· Gonzaga/UCLA o145.5 (-110)
· Double Result – Gonzaga/Gonzaga (-500)
· 1H Spread – UCLA +8 (-110)
· Gonzaga ML (-1100)
