The NCAA Tournament play-in games continue on Wednesday night in the Midwest Region. The 12th seed matchup between the California Golden Bears and South Florida Bulls has a 9:10 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on truTV. Currently the odds have California favored by 3 points with the total for the game sitting at 115 points.

Free Analysis: Both Cal and South Florida were considered to be major bubble teams heading into their respective conference tournaments and somehow both found their way into the NCAA Tournament field. Even though they are in one of the play-in games, it's still the NCAA Tournament. They will play for the right to take on Temple, a fifth seed in the Midwest Region, in what is now being called the second round. The Bulls (20-13) are one of the stingiest defenses in all of college basketball, yielding just under 57 points per game on average, which ended up being a Big East record this season. "That's what we want to do," coach Stan Heath said on Tuesday. "We want to disrupt you. We want to smell your breath. We want to get underneath your skin. We want to make life miserable for you." California (24-9) obviously hasn't seen anything like what South Florida will do defensively in the offensive-minded Pac-12 Conference, which only got one other team in the field in Colorado, who beat Cal and earned an automatic bid into the Tournament. The Golden Bears have four players that average in double figures while South Florida didn't have one. The Bulls were led in scoring by Augustus Gilchrist's 9.6 points per game. They've been held in the 40s eight times this season, with their low point a 52-40 loss to Auburn. During interviews in Dayton for the play-in games, Pac-12 player of the year Jorge Gutierrez was asked whether Cal has faced anything like South Florida defensively. He didn't have an answer because no one plays defense in the Pac-12. "It's going to be a real challenge on the physical side of the game. We're excited for the challenge, and we'll see what happens," he said. South Florida held 16 opponents in the 50s in scoring and seven opponents in the 40s during the season. Their low point of the season was 43 points scored by Florida Southern. The Bulls know they play defense well and they plan to continue doing it in the tournament, starting with this game against Cal. "This is certainly not the first time you've seen a defensive team go out and be successful," forward Ron Anderson Jr. said. "A lot of times nowadays, people are more interested in the flashiness of a game or how high somebody's jumping or how many blocked shots you can get. But when it's all said and done, it boils down to fundamentals." Cal can score points, evident in their 72 per game average. However, the team has struggled away from playing at home, where they were an impressive 17-1 this season. The Bears won just five of 11 games away from home this season, so playing in an unfamiliar venue might prove to be costly for the club.

Free Pick: Despite the amazing defense played by South Florida this season, I think Cal is going to be able to have some success. The Bears want to get out and run in transition, something the Bulls don't allow to happen. But when matching strength against strength, rebounds by Cal could turn into transition buckets. The Big East is known for having big, bruising type teams that don't necessarily play the same style of offensive basketball that the Bears do. Coming off a loss to Colorado in the Pac-12 tournament, I think they're in a good position here. South Florida will want to slow them down and earn everything, but a good-shooting Cal team can win this game. The question is, will they show up and work for it? I certainly hope so.

Free Picks: South Florida vs California Betting
South Florida's style is frustrating and PAC-12 teams are overrated plus other factors college basketball bettors need to know about South Florida vs California (Wednesday, March 14, 2012) from Pregame.com - Including predictions from Stephen Nover and analysis from host Marco D'Angelo.