2011 NCAA Tournament Second Round – East Region
#3 Syracuse Orange vs. #14 Indiana State Sycamores, Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
Friday, March 18, 2011, 7:27 pm Eastern, TV: truTV
Opening Line: Syracuse -10.5
Current Line: Syracuse -12
Opening Total: 130
Current Total: 129
Money Line: Syracuse -1000 / Indiana State +700
The third-seeded Syracuse Orange (26-7) and 14th-seeded Indiana State Sycamores (20-13) each had to endure one real rough patch during the regular season. But both teams finished strong enough to play themselves into this East Region second-round matchup of the NCAA tournament on Friday at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena.
The Orange (-12) dropped four straight games following an 18-0 start and enter the Big Dance as winners of six of their last seven straight-up, going 5-2 against the spread during that stretch. They had their six-game winning streak snapped with a 76-71 overtime loss to #9 seed Connecticut last Friday in the semifinals of the Big East Conference tournament.
Syracuse was seeded fourth and had gotten by #5 St. John’s with a 79-73 victory in the quarterfinals last Thursday. UConn’s Kemba Walker proved to be too much though, as he scored a game-high 33 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds to help the Huskies become the first team ever to win five games in five days over the course of a college basketball tournament.
Unlike the Orange who play in the top-rated conference in the country, Indiana State knew the only way to get an invitation to the NCAA tournament was to win the Missouri Valley tournament and did just that. The Sycamores knocked out the top two seeds in the conference tourney as underdogs to earn an automatic bid, defeating #2 Wichita State 61-54 (+9) and #1 Missouri State 60-56 (+5) en route to the championship.
Outside of the conference tournament results, Indiana State shared some common experiences with Syracuse. Like the Orange, the Sycamores also went 12-6 against conference opponents during the regular season. And like the Orange, they had to overcome a lengthy skid, losing five straight to MVC opponents between January 22 and February 5.
Indiana State has since won eight of its last nine games SU to go along with a 7-2 mark vs. the line. The total went UNDER in all three of the team’s games during the conference tournament after going OVER in the last five games of the regular season.
The Sycamores are back in the Big Dance for the first time since 2001, when they upset Oklahoma 70-68 in overtime as 6.5-point underdogs and advanced to the second round. They lost their following game 85-68 to Gonzaga but still talk about that first-round victory.
Syracuse was the victim of an upset as a top seed in last year’s NCAA tournament, falling to eventual national runner-up Butler 63-59 in the Sweet 16. The Orange have advanced to the Sweet 16 each of the past two years.
Now that you have read this NCAA tournament college basketball betting preview featuring Syracuse & Indiana State, check out the NCAA basketball odds on this and all the games to compare the best lines at multiple sportsbooks.
