The second day of Sweet 16 games will complete the Elite 8 field for the weekend. But which squads will keep playing? There has been a trend during NCAA Tournament play that’s seen the favored team win a bunch of games. All the favorites won in the second round setting the stage for the second weekend of play. It’s called March Madness and we haven’t seen much of it so far. I guess the favorites might be quivering before tipoff. That means you Michigan State, North Carolina, Duke and Kentucky.
And for all you college hoops junkies, there is another game to consider wagering on at offshore sportsbooks. That’s right, the NCAA Tournament isn’t the only one operating on Friday. We’ll round out the final four in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament with the last quarterfinal matchup. The Green Bay Phoenix opened as a 6.5-point favorite over the Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners.
BookMaker.eu will have NCAA Basketball Odds and live betting options for every game on the Friday schedule.
College Basketball Sweet 16 Schedule
No. 3 LSU vs. No. 2 Michigan State ( -6, 148 ), 7:09 p.m. ET (CBS)
No. 5 Auburn vs. No. 1 North Carolina ( -5, 164 ), 7:29 p.m. ET (TBS)
No. 4 Virginia Tech vs. No. 1 Duke ( -7, 144 ), 9:39 p.m. ET (CBS)
No. 3 Houston vs. No. 2 Kentucky ( -3, 134.5 ), 9:59 p.m. ET (TBS)
Cal State Bakersfield at Green Bay ( -6.5, 156 ), 7 p.m. ET
Friday Opening Lines Report
The ACC had five teams reach the Sweet 16 and the league had its first casualty on Thursday when Florida State fell to No. 1 Gonzaga. We won’t have an all ACC Final Four after all. Another league member will head home after Friday since Duke and Virginia Tech will be facing each other. The Hokies beat Duke in their only regular season meeting, but the Blue Devils opened as the biggest favorite of all the games on the college basketball betting line.
Duke was a 3.5-point road favorite in that earlier meeting, and without Zion Williamson suffered a 77-72 loss. Including the game Zion was injured, the Dookies went just 3-3 in his absence. That means they are 28-2 in games the future No. 1 NBA draft pick played. The Hokies will argue that third-leading scorer Justin Robinson didn’t play, but I’ll take Zion over Robinson any day, no offense to Mr. Robinson.
The closest spread among the Sweet 16 matchups is in the Midwest Region with Kentucky laying 3-points to AAC regular season champ Houston. That number has everything to do with the status of Kentucky’s leading scorer PJ Washington in question. Washington missed the first two tourney games with a foot injury and the Wildcats defense rose to the challenge.
The Wildcats limited Abilene Christian to 44 points and stifled three-point specialist Fletcher Magee in the second round, holding him without a make in 12 attempts. The Cats allowed just 50 points per game over the opening weekend. Coach Cal is unsure if Washington plays, and if he does, Calipari will be “stunned” if it’s for more than 15-18 minutes.
LSU rallied around interim coach Tony Benford and did what most thought couldn’t be done. The Tigers were expected to go out early after Will Wade was suspended for his alleged involvement in the college basketball bribery scandal. Instead they decided just to play basketball. The regular season SEC champs are pretty good, too. Tremont Waters and Naz Reid are a formidable inside-outside combo that could give Sparty problems.
One team not getting much pub at this time of year is North Carolina. They are a No. 1 seed and favored by 5-points to beat Auburn and advance to the Elite 8. You just wouldn’t know it after hearing about injuries, scandals, rematch games, and how the food tastes at all the venues. That’s just fine with Roy Williams, who could be looking at a blueblood matchup with Kentucky in the next round.
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