No 1 Duke Appears to Have an Easy Ride to the Great Eight and Final Four
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
by BetUS.com
A lot of college basketball betting fans were decrying the fact that the Duke Blue Devils, the top team from the ACC Conference this past season, were given such an easy bracket to work with.
That may be so, but out of every single one of the brackets, the South Region, where Duke Blue Devils is seeded #1, appears to have followed suit much better than any of the other brackets. Not only did the Dookies make it to the Sweet 16 but so did #3 seeded Baylor and #4 seeded Purdue.
Purdue actually made it without their best player, Robbie Hummel, taking to the court. Will they be able to beat Duke Blue Devils and make it into the Great Eight?
South Region: Great Eight and Final Four
Odds listed to reach the Final Four
Teams: Duke -145, Baylor +225, St Mary’s CA +700, Purdue +800
To Meet in the Great Eight: Duke and St. Mary’s CA
Duke Blue Devils has simply proven a lot of college basketball fans wrong. The team that many predicted to make an early exit from the NCAA Tournament has proven to be too tough for the teams it has met so far in the Big Dance.
The Blue Devils rocked Arkansas Pine-Bluff 73 to 44 as 24 point favorites and then, even more impressive than that, destroyed a very good California Golden Bears team by 15 points, 68 to 53.
Duke is just a good team, I’m finally convinced, and should have no problem taking down the Purdue Boilermakers, who are coming off of an overtime victory, 63 to 61, against Texas A&M. Purdue is playing well and it’s hard not to root for them since they’re doing it without Hummel, but Duke is just too good. They’ll beat Purdue.
In the other Sweet 16 game in the South Region, the St. Mary’s Gaels battle the Baylor Bears. St. Mary’s has to be considered one of the most impressive teams in this tournament.
They beat Richmond as 2 point underdogs and then steam-rolled the Villanova Wildcats 75 to 68 as 4 point dogs. There are three reasons that explain St. Mary’s victories in this tournament.
First, they do the little things like box-out and rebound. Second, they are an excellent defensive team that has the ability to shut down an opposing team’s guards. Finally, Omar Samhan, who is averaging 21 points per game, has been outstanding. He’s unstoppable.
I don’t think Baylor, whose best player like Villanova and Richmond is a guard, will be able to stop Samhan either. Samhan is just too good for Baylor to control. St. Mary’s should upset Baylor in the Sweet 16.
To Reach the Final Four: Duke Blue Devils
I love Omar Samhan, but Duke has three Omar Samhan’s on their team in Kyle Sigler, Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith. Sigler can drive to the basket, shoot the three or dish, Scheyer can do everything as well and Smith has been simply brilliant.
Samhan will get his points and the St. Mary’s Gaels will do the little things, but unfortunately they will face a team in Duke, led by the venerable Coach K, who has three players who can dominate and do the little things as well as they do.
In other words, the Gaels won’t be able to defend better or out-box the Dookies. Duke will make it to the Final Four.
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