The Oklahoma Sooners had a fine start to the 2016 NCAA Tournament as the hot shooting of Buddy Hield and co. saw them past No. 15 CSU Bakersfield. Up next for the West Region’s No. 2 seed in the second round are the No. 10 VCU Rams, who ousted No. 7 Oregon State in their opening round game.
Get ready for this big second round showdown in the West with our comprehensive preview below. Meanwhile, check out our preview of the Midwest No. 15 Middle Tennessee’s matchup with No. 10 Syracuse here.
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March Madness No. 2 Oklahoma vs No. 10 VCU Preview
Where: Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City
When: Sunday, March 20, 5:15 PM
Line: Oklahoma Sooners (-6.5) vs VCU Rams (+6.5); total 146.0 – view all March Madness lines
TV Broadcast: CBS
Betting on the Oklahoma Sooners
The Oklahoma Sooners looked pretty good in their first-round win over CSU Bakersfield. However, not quite good enough to cover the 15-point spread. The Sooners are now just 2-10 ATS in their last 12 games.
Meanwhile, Isaiah Cousins and Jordan Woodard combined for 31 points on 10-of-17 shooting. The Sooners as a team shot 50 percent from the field and 11-of-20 from beyond the arc against the Roadrunners. When Hield gets that type of support from his teammates, the Sooners become incredibly tough to stop.
Oklahoma definitely won’t be caught off-guard by VCU’s gameplan of applying intense pressure. The Sooners have plenty of experience going up against a similar style after facing arguably the best pressing team in the nation – West Virginia – three times this season. The Sooners came away victorious in two of those meetings, and were also a split-second from winning the third.
Oklahoma’s defense allows its fair share of three-pointers, which has been a key in some of its losses. But VCU doesn’t hit threes at an incredibly efficient rate (just 35.6 percent on the season), so the Sooners’ big weakness shouldn’t hurt them as much against the Rams.
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Betting on the VCU Rams
Despite leading scorer Melvin Johnson (17 PPG) scoring just 12 points, the team shooting just 4-of-20 from three and forcing just six turnovers, the VCU Rams still came away with a pretty comfortable 75-67 win over Oregon State.
Juniors JeQuan Lewis and Mo Alie-Cox stepped up big-time with 21 and 20 points to lead the Rams, who snapped a two-year losing streak in the round of 64.
Johnson’s struggles are a bit concerning for VCU. The senior has shot just 32 percent over his last five games, and has averaged just below nine points in his last three. They’ll need every point they can get against a high-scoring Sooners team that averages over 80 points per game.
However, the Rams still possess an impressive defense that can not only create takeaways (they’re 18th in opponent’s turnover rate) but can also prevent three-point attempts. Only 30 percent of their opponents’ shots were threes, one of the lowest three-point attempt rates in the country. That skill set should match up well against a Sooners offense that’s highly reliant on threes.
Writer’s Prediction
Oklahoma has too much firepower for VCU as the Sooners (-6.5) move on to the Sweet 16 with a 77-69 win.
