Previewing Friday's First Four NCAA Tournament Games
We’re back for day two. Day one was awesome, which is always a pleasant surprise. You have all this anticipation for the NCAA Tournament and you just want to see some good games. We got that. We haven’t always had that. So now let’s build on that for day two, eh?
I’m going to try and break down these previews to four games at a time so they aren’t as clunky and less than 4,000 words. I’ll be making picks for every single NCAA Tournament game, but let me know what you like, what you hate and talk about the games @barstoolreags.
No. 7 Texas A&M vs No. 10 Providence – 12:15 pm, CBS
Line: Texas A&M -2.5
Two completely different looks here from these two teams. Texas A&M quite lacks guards. Providence has one of the best in the country in Kyron Cartwright. What you can expect is Texas A&M to try and feed the ball down low as much as possible, getting the ball to Robert Williams and Tyler Davis. One thing I will be keeping an eye on here is how much zone Texas A&M runs. With the weird lineups they’ll have, matching up man-to-man, especially against Providence’s flex offense can be rather difficult. Throwing out the zone they run will likely be the decision here. The reason why? Providence actually struggles shooting the ball from three. They don’t get up a bunch of threes (ranking 305th in the country in points from the 3-point line) and shoot just 33.3% as a team from three. If you run that zone and can take away Cartwright getting to the free throw line area – where he loves to pull up from – you can limit what they do offensively.
Bracket pick: Providence
ATS pick: Providence
No. 2 Purdue vs No. 15 Cal State Fullerton – 12:40 pm, TruTV
Line: Purdue -20
There’s no delicate way to put this. Cal State Fullerton simply can’t match up with Purdue. It’s that sample, but then again most No. 15 seeds don’t match up well against 2 seeds. I know, not exactly groundbreaking stuff here. The Titans don’t have anyone over 6’7″ on the roster, which means that Purdue can play through Haas and even Vincent Edwards in the post. If Fullerton wants to double, it’s going to be just open threes for everyone on Purdue. If they don’t want to double, they unfortunately aren’t good enough to score consistently against Purdue.
Bracket pick: Purdue
ATS pick: Purdue
No. 4 Wichita State vs No. 13 Marshall – 1:30 pm, TNT
Line: Wichita State -12
This is a game I’ve had circled since Sunday. I think you’re looking at two teams that want to push the tempo, can really score the ball and can exploit the others weaknesses. Wichita State has been known as a defensive team and rightfully so as they’ve been a top-30 defense the last 6 years prior to this. This year they are outside the top-100 and are extremely vulnerable to the 3-point shot. The bigger concern isn’t teams shooting 36.3% from the 3-point line against them, which is 247th in the country. No, the bigger concern is the fact that teams are getting looks from three on over 40% of shots. That’s especially true when they are going up against Marshall and a Dan D’Antoni coached team. That means they want to get the ball up the floor fast and either layups or threes. Wichita is going to have to figure out a way to stop Jon Elmore, who is the only person in the country to put up 26/6/6 per game.
Bracket pick: Marshall
ATS pick: Marshall
No. 2 Cincinnati vs No. 15 Georgia State – 2:00 pm, TBS
Line: Cincinnati -13.5
Expect this game to be played at an incredibly slow pace. Both teams rank sub-200 in average offensive possession length, but they do it in two different ways. Cincinnati slows it down and either gets Evans into an ISO or works a hi-lo with Clark and Washington. Georgia State slows it down, changes floors and runs a motion offense for three. It couldn’t be more opposite. Georgia State ranks 84th in 3PA/FGA while Cincinnati ranks 234rd in the country in the same category. Now a player to watch for Georgia State? D’Marcus Simonds. The 6’3″ sophomore is a legit NBA prospect as he scores over 21 per game while also putting up 5.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. The problem though is he’s not a great shooter. He needs to get to the rim and in the lane to finish. Cincinnati has rim protectors in guys like Clark and Washington. I also expect them to put Evans on him to give him a bigger body to get by.
Bracket pick: Cincinnati
ATS pick: Cincinnati