Today the Cincinnati Bearcats will tangle with the Kentucky Wildcats at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky in the 3rd round of the NCAA Tournament . The game has a start time of 2:40 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on CBS. Current Vegas betting odds have the Wildcats listed as 16 point favorites, while the total is set at 120.5.
Analysis: The Cincinnati Bearcats had won 5 games in a row before suffering a 57-54 loss to the UConn Huskies in the Quarterfinals of the AAC Tournament, but they did bounce back with a big come from behind win to beat Purdue in OT on Thursday. Overall the Bearcats are now 23-10 on the year, but just 2-2 in neutral site games. Cincy has gone 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a S.U. win, but just 1-6 ATS in their last 7 neutral site games. The Bearcats have been a very poor offensive team, as they come in ranked 293rd in scoring (62.5 ppg), 91st in shooting (45.1%), 209th in 3 point shooting (33.5%) and 252nd in FT shooting (67.0%). Defensively the Bearcats have been very good this year, ranking 6th in points allowed (55.6 ppg), 19th in defensive FG% (38.9%) and 63rd in 3 point defense (32.1%).
The Kentucky Wildcats come in as the top seeded team in the Big Dance and the last team left without a blemish on their record. Kentucky, which is now 35-0 on the year, continued their pursuit of a perfect season with a very easy 79-56 win over Hampton on Thursday. Kentucky has gone 12-3-3 ATS in their last 18 neutral site games and 8-3-1 ATS in their last 12 NCAA Tournament games. The Cats have been a very good offensive team this year, ranking 28th in scoring (75.0 ppg), 42nd in shooting (46.8%), 154th in 3 point shooting (34.9%) and 70th in FT shooting (72.2%). The defense for this team has been very good as they come in ranked, 3rd in points allowed (54.0 ppg), 1st in defensive FG% (35.2%) and 3rd in 3 point defense (27.3%).
Pick: I almost took a shot on the Over here, but I just can,t because of the way that both teams can play defense and the fact that only one team here has a shot at 60 points. The Cincinnati Bearcats have been a very poor offensive team this year and I can't see that improving at all vs a Kentucky defense that ranks 3rd in points allowed and 1st in defensive FG%. The Bearcats also play a slow brand of offense and that helps keep their scoring down as well. This team has not shot in hell at 60+ points and i n fact I would be very surprised to see them hit 50+ points here. For Kentucky, they are a very good offensive team, but they also know coming in that they will have to do very little on offense to win this one, plus it will not be all that easy for them to score here vs a Cincinnati defense that is 6th in the nation in points allowed and 19th in defensive FG%. Neither offense will find it easy to score here and that has me seeing a 65-48 type final.
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NCAA Basketball: Who Can Win it All?
Teddy Covers and Steve Fezzik from Pregame.com discuss who they feel will win it all in the NCAA Tournament, while throwing in some teams that have a chance to make a deep run in the tournament.
