After the first two rounds of this year’s tournament, the top two seeds in the East region; #1 Kentucky and #2 West Virginia have advanced onto the Sweet 16, but the next highest seed that is left is 11th seed Washington followed by the 12th seed Big Red of Cornell as these two teams have four huge upset wins between them. Here is a look at next Thursday’s match-ups along with the current odds for each game.
Washington Huskies vs. West Virginia Mountaineers -4.5 Over/Under 142
In the early game in the East, scheduled for a 7:25 P.M. tip off on Thursday, March 25th Washington will try and keep its impressive run in this tournament alive against a solid West Virginia team.
So far the Huskies (26-9) have beaten #6 seed Marquette 80-78 in the first round and #3 seed New Mexico 82-64 in the second round. In the win over the Golden Eagles, senior F Quincy Pondexter nailed a short bank shot with 1.7 seconds left to give Washington the two point victory. In a much easier outing in the second round, they built a 12 point lead over the Lobos in the first half and coasted to the 18 point win.
Against their first round opponent, #15 seed Morgan State, West Virginia (29-6) went 0-11 to start the game but quickly found their touch in a 77-50 win. Sophomore F Kevin Jones led the Mountaineers with 17 points and 8 rebounds. In their 69-58 win over #10 seed Missouri, senior F Da’Sean Butler, the team’s leading scorer had a game high 28 points to lead West Virginia to the Sweet 16 for the fifth time in school history with their last appearance being in 2008.
Who Should Win: West Virginia
Who Will Win: West Virginia (-4.5). With Butler, Jones, and sophomore F Devin Ebanks the Mountaineers can beat you in so many ways.
Cornell Big Red vs. Kentucky Wildcats -9 Over/Under 145.5
In the second game scheduled for a 9:55 P.M. tipoff on Thursday, March 25th the Big Red of Cornell will try and slay another Goliath when the take on the top seed Kentucky Wildcats.
There were a couple of basketball experts that picked Cornell (29-4) to win a few games in this tournament. After watching them play in the first two rounds everyone can now understand why. In their first game they completely man handled #5 seed Temple, winning by 13 points; 78-65. In the second round they made things look even easier with a dominating 87-69 win over #4 seed Wisconsin. With seniors Ryan Wittman, Louis Dale, and Jeff Foote this team not only has a wealth of experience, but a ton of confidence to go along with it.
Kentucky (34-2) came into the NCAA’s as the number two team in the country and with Kansas making an unexpected exit from this tournament in the second round, is now the odds-on-favorite at 2-1 to win it all. In their first two tune-up games they beat East Tennessee State, the #16 seed 100-71 in the first round and Wake Forest, the #9 seed 90-60 in the second round. Led by the dynamic duo of John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, who are both playing in their first NCAA Tournament as freshmen it will take a monumental effort to derail this team.
Who Should Win: Kentucky
Who Will Win: Cornell (+9) The Big Red will not win this game outright but they will cover the nine as their experience will throw a scare into this talented but youthful Kentucky team.
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