The Dayton Flyers are playing the Wichita State Shockers in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night. The game is scheduled for a 7:10 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on CBS. The college basketball odds for the game have the Shockers favored to pick up the win here.

College Basketball Odds
Wichita State -5.5
Total: 144.5 points

Interestingly, the 10th seeded Wichita State Shockers are favored here over the seven seed Dayton Flyers. That should give way to a nice game here in the opening round of the tournament, the winner will advance to take on presumably Kentucky in the second round.

Wichita State no longer has Ron Baker or Fred VanVleet. They still have Gregg Marshall leading the way but with the recent firing of Tom Crean at Indiana, surely his name is going to come up in connection with that job. Sow without their great backcourt of years past and the possible distractions of their head coach, Wichita State has to find a way.

And along that note, it’s worth point out the Archie Miller at Dayton is also being talked about as a potential guy for that job. So both schools will be juggling that along with getting prepared for the opponent in what should be an excellent game.

Wichita won 30 games this season, the lone losses coming to Louisville, Michigan State, Oklahoma State and Illinois State. All four of those clubs are very strong, only Illinois State missed the tournament but should have been in. The Shockers can score (82.1), rebound (40.8) and defend (62.4) and they will cause all sorts of problems for Dayton.

The Flyers are a strong team themselves, but they enter the tournament having lost each of their last two games. They are pretty good defensively as well, but overall Wichita looks and feels like the better team.

Free Pick: Wichita

 Wichita St. Vs. Dayton (Betting NCAA Basketball)

A battle tested team that is underrated typically does well in the Big Dance. handicapped by Pro Bettor Brad Powers - with Steve Fezzik from the Pregame.com Studios in Las Vegas. Get his NCAA College Basketball Free Pick: Wichita St Vs. Dayton

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