Oral Roberts vs Arkansas -11 O/U 159
These 2 teams played earlier this year with Arkansas securing the win 87-76. Arkansas started off slow and had to get back into this game late to win by 11. This Oral Roberts team has been electrifying and certainly the funnest team to watch in the tournament. They play fast and they are hitting some big big shots. Both of their games were close both went to overtime. The reason for Oral Roberts success was the turnover margin. Ohio State turned it over 16 times to their 6 and Florida turned it over 20 – 12 times? Can this keep up? Not likely. Arkansas is a complete team here and I expect this game to look a little bit more like the second half of the Colgate game. Arkansas ranks 10th in defense and Oral Roberts ranks 234th. Arkansas also is the better shooting team at 45.3% to 44.3% in a much harder conference. I think the Razorbacks can cover this game but I do not like their slow starts so I think that you will get a better number on them in-game betting. Wait for the game to be close and hit Arkansas. If the game isn’t close, then hit the under.
Lean Arkansas -11 and lean under 159
Syracuse vs Houston -6 O/U 140.5
Houston isn’t the best shooting team here and it has showed against Rutgers but I also think that Syracuse has been shooting out of their minds lately averaging about 50% from 3 their last 2 games and 49.4% overall their last 3 games. Houston has had their stinkers away from home this year but they have been consistently a top 10 team in the nation while Syracuse was thought to miss the tournament a week ago. The key thing for me is that Houston can defend the three pointer ranking 12th in the nation allowing 29.2%. Now they also play in a very bad shooting conference and all but that is still pretty high. Syracuse has been so hot and cold this year that it wouldn’t surprise me if they were hitting shots here or if they were missing and Houston would drain clock. My biggest fear is the Orange’s match-up zone that could confuse Houston and cause them to miss a lot of shots. I have Houston winning 73-65 but do I want to go against Jim Boeheim when his is 20-12 ATS since 2006 in this tournament? Probably not, but I think the under is a decent play because I can see many ways that it could hit.
Under 140.5 – 1.5 stars
