Well I was correct. I had the most interesting region in the tournament to preview. Madness was prevalent as we saw #16 Seed Fairleigh Dickinson upset #1 seed Purdue marking only the second time it has happened since the field expanded. #9 Florida Atlantic beat #8 Memphis and then knocked off FDU to get to the Sweet sixteen. Rick Barnes led #4 Tennessee couldn’t cover my Free Play against #13 Louisiana, but they won and then held #5 Duke to 52 points in the Round of 32. The bottom half of the bracket saw #3 Kansas State advancing to the Sweet Sixteen with wins over#14 Montana St. and #6 Kentucky. And finally in what hurt my bracket the most #7 Michigan State handled #10 USC and then upset #2 Marquette to advance to the round of 16.
The East Region will be determined on Thursday and Saturday in New York City at Madison Square Garden.
#3 Kansas State vs #7 Michigan State 5:30 PM CT (MSU-1.5 O/U 138)
The Spartans logged two very good defensive efforts to get to this point especially against Marquette where they held the #6 Offense in the land to just 60 points. They will need to slow the pace again against a KSU offense that runs even faster than MU. Michigan State will hope to stay hot from behind the arc as they are the sixth best 3 point shooting team in the country. KSU is the 15th best defending it however so it’s possible MSU does the same formula it did against Marquette and looks to transition baskets and their inside game. KSU will likely look to get out in run as said above, but if that doesn’t work they actually played better when they slowed things down against grinding defensive teams like Iowa State. I’m waiting to pull the trigger on this one cause it just seems like this is one of those magical Izzo runs in the making, but Fun Fact…after beating Marquette, Michigan State is 10-0 when holding teams to 60 points or fewer, and 11-12 when it doesn’t. Wanna guess how many times this year Kansas State has scored less than 60? Once in a 55-50 win against Wichita State. Heavy Lean and likely small play coming from me on Kansas State ML.
#9 Florida Atlantic vs #4 Tennessee Approx. 8:00 CT (Tennessee -5.5 O/U 129.5)
The FAU Owls have 33 wins on the docket now and are top 33 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. While they certainly haven’t been tested to the extent of Tennessee they have still shown they can ball. They have a very deep bench and use it frequently. They also have some solid size inside to try to compete and bang with the Volunteers….Good luck. Tennessee is the top defensive team in the nation and the Owls only put up 65 against a Memphis team that wanted to run and imploded late. What Tennessee did to Duke with all the momentum they had and the size and talent on that offense gave me pause. The Vols are going to be physical and out-muscle the Owls. Against other SEC teams this year the Owls got heavily out-rebounded. Tennessee has also held opponents under 60 points 6 out of their last 9 games. I can’t believe I am getting behind Rick Barnes for the second time this tournament, but I think this is a horrible match-up for FAU and I got it at 4.5. I had it as 70-62 so I’m still in on Tennessee at -5.5 for 1.5 Units. Don’t Mess it up Rick.
