Happy Selection Sunday everyone!
LSU vs Alabama -6 O/U 157
And then there were 2. Both of these teams really faced some adversity over this SEC tournament with LSU down to Mississippi 3/4 into their first game and Alabama down double digits in the second half to Tennessee only to come back and win it. Both teams play extremely fast with LSU ranking 27th in seconds per possession and Alabama ranking number 2 at 14.1 seconds per possession. The reason that this total isn’t 170+ points is that Alabama’s defense ranks number 1 in the league and LSU has stepped their defense up recently. LSU is the better shooting team at 53.1% FG to Bama’s 51.3%. Both teams focus on offensive rebounds much more then defensive boards. Looking at this spread, I think that it is a tad bit high for this caliber game. Both teams will be very motivated here and if anything, LSU has shown that they can hang with the best teams in the SEC with two wins vs Arkansas, ole miss and one against Tennessee. Alabama beat this LSU team handily the two times that they have played but LSU’s rebounder Darious Days was out one of those games and only had played 15 minutes in their first matchup due to foul trouble. I’ll take LSU + the points here and I think Alabama wins 80-75.
LSU +6 – 2 stars and sprinkle ML