Vegas should offer a strangle on the FGCU/UF game. Say, +600 if the margin of victory is greater than five but less than 20 points.
Fun first weekend, and an historic performance by FGCU.
These are the remaining matchups, with seed, [kenpom], and current line:
Thu:
3 Marquette [28] v. 2 Miami [13] -5.5
4 Syracuse [12] v. 1 Indiana [3] -5.5
6 Arizona [15] v. 2 Ohio St. [5] -3.5
13 La Salle [46] v. 9 Wichita St [21] -4.0
Fri:
12 Oregon [31] v. 1 Louisville [2] -9.5
3 Michigan St [6] v. 2 Duke [4] -2.0
4 Michigan [8] v. 1 Kansas [9] -2.0
15 FGCU [93] v. 3 Florida [1] -13.0
In every game the higher seeded team is favored by Vegas, with Louisville and Florida projected to have easier games. No one else is favored by more than one or two possessions.
-jk
Vegas should offer a strangle on the FGCU/UF game. Say, +600 if the margin of victory is greater than five but less than 20 points.
just noticed that duke is 3-1 against the sweet sixteen this season. let's make it 7-1!
Andy Glockner reporting that Reggie Johnson didn't make the trip due to injury. He hasn't been all that effective lately but that puts a ton of pressure on Gamble and Kadji, IMO.
^Johnson had surgery on his meniscus. Even though he hasn't been lighting in on fire, he's still been rebounding it pretty well so other Canes will need to step up. They say he could potentially be ready for the Final Four if they make it.
I believe according to kenpom, florida is playing CGNU, or crazy go nuts university :P
for the uninitiated:
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail26.html
and for the theme song
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail73.html
April 1
Call me crazy, I think they are better without Reggie, especially given how Reggie has performed this year. They are much better with Gamble in the game and they still have the young 7 footer to rotate in when Gamble needs rest.
Reggies has bogged down their offense and their D and generally gotten in the way. They are better defensively and offensively without him to me.
They only lose out on having someone to push a defender out of the way for game winning tip ins.
Reggie Johnson's last 8 games, starting with the Duke game, he's scored a TOTAL of 15 points on 5-24 shooting, while accumulating 15 turnovers and 17 fouls. He has managed 39 rebounds. But really, I think the Canes can replace his nearly 5 rebounds a game, and even if they can't, they can probably find someone who can put up more points than turnovers, and shoot over 20%. It's hard to argue they're losing a whole lot here.
Johnson CAN be an effective player, but he isn't right now, and the Canes may be better off without him.
Pomeroy has us as a 53.7% favorite on Friday. If we win that, we have about a 39% chance of making the Final Four (Louisville is obviously the heavy favorite).
In our region, Pomeroy's overall probabilities of making the Final Four are as follows:
Louisville: 58.1%
Duke: 21.1%
MSU: 16.7%
Oregon: 9.2%
Pomeroy gives us the 5th best chance at winning the title (5.3%, or 1 in 19). UF (29.2%), Louisville (25.3%), Indiana (13.0%), and OSU (8.5%) are ahead. And OSU is only ahead because they have a MUCH easier path to the Final Four than Duke (reducing the probability that they lose before the Final Four and thus don't get the chance to win it all).
http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/web...sweet_16_log51
Thanks. Good stuff. If our guys can play at a high level, I like our chances against any team remaining in the field. I do agree Louisville would be the toughest challenge, and honestly, after them, I think for Duke, Miami would be the next toughest challenge.
The key is can our guys put in a 4 game stretch playing at or near their best basketball. I know the odds are still long, and we have the toughest path by far, but it can happen.
What really sucks to me, is the fact that Kelly missed the 13 games and is still coming back up to speed, and Seth has been hurt the entire year. If an buts and all that, but had those two guys been 100% healthy from Oct 15 until now, I feel this team could have been a 2 or 3 loss team, Number 1 overall seed, and heavy favorites to win it all. Sort of like the Kyrie year, the injuries robbed us of a dominant team while still leaving us good enough to be 1 of a handful of teams in the mix to win it.
All that said, here we are in the Sweet 16 still alive an in the mix.
The odds are long but somebody will win!
I can't even explain Miami's performance thus far. Not much effort being expended, and really poor decision making. And Larkin has 2 fouls.
This team looks stunned. By what, I'm not sure.
Is anyone else having problems? CBS' site is freezing up every five seconds, as are several firstrow links.
Team Shoes can't throw it in the ocean.