The Round of 64 has come to an end, opening the door for the Cinderella team to make a name for themselves.
We watched Yale defeat powerhouse Auburn and see a pair of 12th seeds pull off back-to-back upsets to end Friday night. Isn’t college basketball the best?
It’s time to start everything over again.
Sit back on the couch and enjoy the last day of your first weekend.
With that in mind, here are my two best bets for Sunday’s NCAA Tournament games.
Colorado (+3.5) vs. Marquette
Marquette may have beaten Western Kentucky late in the first round, but this team is inconsistent and this is a team that should fade down the stretch.
Tyler Kolek looked healthier after coming back from injury, but the flaws still remained.
First, Colorado should be able to control the glass in this matchup. Marquette is outside the top 270 in both offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds.
In the first round against WKU, the Hilltoppers had 14 second chances and outscored the Golden Eagles 44-37.
That means the physicality of Eddie Lumpkin, Luke O’Brien and others should help the Buffaloes maintain longer possessions.
Lumpkin ranked within the top five in offensive rebound percentage during Pac-12 play.
This is a patience play to put Colorado at a disadvantage. Since February 22, the Buffs have ranked 12th in efficiency and looked like a completely different team.
Although inconsistent, the return of Cody Williams is a big plus for a team lacking depth.
I’m very happy that we were able to overcome Marquette’s questionable 3-point defense and get a point against Colorado here.
Shaka Smart’s team makes over 43 percent of its attempts from the perimeter and is not among the top 150 in 3-point percentage.
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Tad Boyle’s team ranks sixth in the nation in 3-point shooting. The Buffs look to attack downhill, but they have plenty of capable shooters from deep.
Superstar KJ Simpson connected at a 44 percent clip, while Tristan da Silva, O’Brien, and even Jevon Hadley all shot better than 39 percent.
From a talent standpoint, I think these teams are pretty evenly matched. In fact, Marquette is the more inconsistent of the two, with him sitting near 300 points and outside the top 300 in momentum according to Haslamemetrics.
This is a coin toss game, so I’m happy to support Colorado here.
