For every person who feels happy for the UMBC Retrievers for making it to the National Tournament, there is another who feels pity for them in advance. The Retrievers face No. 1 seed Virginia Cavaliers this coming Friday the 16th in a match not even UMBC players’ friends could say with a straight face the Retrievers could beat. Read on for a preview of this game and register here to make your pick.
Betting Preview for the UMBC Retrievers vs Virginia Cavaliers College Basketball Championship Tournament Round 1 Game on March 16 2018
Where: Spectrum Center, Charlotte
When: Friday, March 16, 00:00 PM ET
Line: UMBC Retrievers (n/a) vs Virginia Cavaliers (n/a) – view all NCAA Basketball lines
TV Broadcast: Turner Network Television
Betting on the UMBC Retrievers (24-10)
While the Retrievers are looking like sacrificial lambs to the Virginia Cavaliers, there are some good things to say for this team. For one, they can certainly shoot the three-ball. The Retrievers are making 9.8 three-pointers per game on a solid 38.2 percent accuracy. They will have to find their outside shot early in the game in order for UMBC to at least loosen up Virginia’s vaunted pack-line defense. During the Retrievers 65-62 win in the America East Finals over Vermont, they sank 10 three-pointers on 22 attempts. The Retrievers are averaging 72.5 points per game on 43.8 field goal percentage. Jairus Lyles, who scored 27 points in that game with five treys, leads UMBC with 20.2 points per game. UMBC is 3-0 ATS in its last three games overall.
Betting on the Virginia Cavaliers (31-2)
It’s time (again) for the Virginia Cavaliers to bring out their merciless defense into the Big Dance. The Cavaliers finished the ACC postseason by beating North Carolina in the conference’s tournament finals, 71-63. The Cavs have the best defense in the nation, and they have used that strength of theirs to diffuse high-octane offenses of the likes of North Carolina and Duke. UMBC is nowhere near the caliber of Duke and North Carolina or any other ACC team that Virginia has regularly beaten this season, so it’s very unlikely for them to cause Tony Bennett’s boys any trouble. Virginia allows the fewest points in the nation (53.4 points per game), and could realistically surrender a lot fewer than that to UMBC, which enters the tournament having having shared a court with a ranked opponent just once so far this season.
Writer’s Prediction
Virginia crushes UMBC, 81-51 and moves on to Round Two of the tournament with extreme ease.
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