2011 NCAA Tournament Third Round – East Region
#4 Kentucky Wildcats vs. #5 West Virginia Mountaineers, St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, FL
Saturday, March 19, 2011, 12:15 pm Eastern, TV: CBS
Opening Line: Kentucky -3.5
Current Line: Kentucky -4
Opening Total: 131.5
Current Total: 132
Money Line: Kentucky -165 / West Virginia +145
A rematch of sorts will take place in the third round of the East Region in the NCAA tournament on Saturday when the fourth-seeded Kentucky Wildcats (26-8) meet the fifth-seeded West Virginia Mountaineers (21-11) at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. Last year, it was the second-seeded Mountaineers who upset the top-seeded Wildcats (-4) in the East Regional Final 73-66 as 4-point underdogs, advancing to their first Final Four since 1959.
That game does not seem too long ago, but the key players involved are different this time around, as Kentucky’s John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton have all moved on to the NBA along with West Virginia’s De’Sean Butler and Devin Ebanks. The new-look Wildcats have found replacements in freshmen Brandon Knight, Doron Lamb and Terrence Jones while the Mountaineers are looking to leftovers from last year’s team in Joe Mazzulla, John Flowers, Darryl Bryant and Kevin Jones.
“It’s like they have a completely different team. I’m not sure they have that inside presence that they had from Cousins, even though Josh Harrellson does a pretty good job,” Mazzulla said. “On our end, we’re a much different team. We kind of spread the load out as far as what we’re going to do offensively, and we really have to rely on defense and rebounding. So, I don’t really think it’s too much of a rematch.”
Kentucky got a scare from #13 Princeton on Thursday in the second round, failing to cover the 12.5-point spread but surviving for a 59-57 victory when Knight made a driving layup with two seconds remaining. Knight finished with a season-low two points on 1 of 8 shooting from the field, but they ended up being the biggest two points for either team. Junior Darius Miller led the Wildcats with 17 points while Harrellson added 15. The other freshmen Jones and Lamb combined for 17 points and five rebounds.
The Wildcats are riding a seven-game winning streak, going 3-3-1 against the spread during that stretch. The UNDER has cashed in five of their last six games while West Virginia saw a similar trend before beating #12 Clemson 84-76 in its second-round game.
The Mountaineers started slow against the Tigers but finally pulled ahead in the second half thanks to a 15-1 run that started late in the first half and continued after the intermission. They were down nine points with 14:18 remaining in the first half but rallied to tie the game 40-40 at halftime. Bryant scored a team-high 19 points while Jones added 17, as the team overcame giving up its highest point total in the first half of any game this season. The betting total went OVER for the second time in three games after going UNDER in the previous five games.
Now that you have read this NCAA tournament college basketball betting preview featuring Kentucky & West Virginia, check out the NCAA basketball odds on this and all the games to compare the best lines at multiple sportsbooks.
