Thursday Sweet 16 Action

Dom and I put our dual card out on all of our social media platforms but I am going to give a rundown of why I like each of these plays. We also went over all of the Sweet 16 games in our latest episode of "No Eligibility," listen here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/no-eligibility/id1452937344?mt=2#episodeGuid=https%3A%2F%2Fpodcast.rss.com%2Fnoeligibility%2F%3Fname%3Dno_eligibility_episode_3_audio_%282%29.mp3

Florida State and Under:

We saw this game one year ago in the same exact scenario, the Sweet 16. Florida State won outright as underdogs and the game stayed under. I anticipate the same thing this time around. I think Florida State poses such a threat because they are sooooo deep, sooooo long, and sooooo athletic. They don't really have one player that you would say is a superstar, or even a star in general but they play a great team game and they get done what Coach Leonard Hamilton wants them to do.

Gonzaga is a solid team no doubt. They have a lot of talent and experience and because of that I don't expect them to be overwhelmed tonight. But I think this is going to be a 12 round fight with a lot of defense, slow basketball, and athletes. Giving a team in this one 8 points is way too much and I am going to rely on a tight game to keep us under.

Tennessee:

Carsen Edwards is made for March, his last time out we saw him go for 42 against Villanova. When he gets going, there aren't many better players in the entire nation than him. But with all of that being said I think if you can shut Edwards down, then Purdue suffers too.

I think Tennessee has the horses to hang with Edwards and has the big bodies to get in his way and disrupt Edwards flow tonight. As many times as we have seen Edwards go for 40, we also see him go 7-31 and get upset by Minnesota. Look for Admiral Schofield to have a big showing tonight as he was on the bench for most of the last game against Iowa and Grant Williams will do what he does. I think Tennessee gives us a big effort tonight.

Texas Tech Spread/ML/Under:

I am a big fan of Texas Tech in this one obviously. I think they just provide a bigger threat on the offensive end than Michigan does. Both of these teams are as elite as it comes defensively so that is why the under is here.

Texas Tech has the best player in this game in Jarrett Culver and anytime you can say that you are going to have a fighting chance. But most of all why I love the Red Raiders in this game is Michigan's inability to consistently hit shots from beyond the arc. They are sitting at 34% on the year and that just won't be enough to cut it against a defense as good as Tech's. Take the points, money line, and the under.

Oregon:

I don't have a great feel for this game honestly but this one falls under a strategy I continue to use and win with. Both of these teams want to play really, really slow/efficient on offense and lock down on defense. When a games possessions are limited, it seems almost impossible to lay 8.5. Maybe I am falling into a trap because that is a really high spread given the super low total in 119 but I am taking the points and thinking this is just an oversight on the spread by the oddsmakers.

I'll continue to ride with the scorching hot Ducks to cover in this game.