(6) SMU v. (11) UCLA
Time: 3:10 PM ET
Spread: SMU -4
Total: 133
M/L: SMU -180; UCLA +160
Betting odds c/o Bovada
Coaching legend Larry Brown’s SMU Mustangs continue to get more and more respect, both from selections committees and from college basketball oddsmakers. The 27-6 Mustangs will face the storied UCLA Bruins program, and is both the higher seed and a 4-point favorite in second round action which will air on TruTV.
For all Brown’s credentials as a defensive specialist type of coaching talent, he has instilled SMU with a highly efficient and well run offense. The Mustangs ranked 21st in the NCAA in assists per game, despite boasting merely an average scoring offense, and it also shot 47.9 percent from the floor, good for 22nd in the NCAA. It posted a 15-3 mark in the AAC, easily notching a conference championship over the UConn Huskies by a tally of 62-54 on Mar 15.
It will ride that momentum and a four-game win streak into the tournament. For as good as all that may sound, the Mustangs haven’t faced many top opponents this season. It lost both its matchups to ranked opponents, Gonzaga and Arkansas, and really dominated mostly a lackluster schedule. Standout victories over Michigan and aforementioned UConn do bode well, but it stands to wonder that the road could get pretty rocky for the Mustangs if it escapes with a victory in this one.
SMU’s top quartet of players are are very good, though. Nic Moore leads the team in scoring at 14.2 points per game, and he’s also dropped 5.2 assists per contest this season. Moore is a very strong free throw shooter at 88.5 percent, which will be a nice feature in helping the Mustangs close out games from the line. The same does not apply to two of its other top talents, Markus Kennedy and Yanick Moreira, who both shoot less than 66 percent from the stripe and are top perfromers. Kennedy and Moreira both average over six rebounds per game.
The Mustangs have been without Keith Frazier for most of the season, who was ruled academically ineligible after 17 games and having been a key performer during that stretch. Even so, Brown coaxed a great season out of this team and a victory over UCLA would be a big mark for the program given the Bruins’ tournament history. Even if UCLA is “just” an 11 seed this year, it is a big program that SMU would pride itself on dismantling.
UCLA is 20-13 thus far on the season and posted an 11-7 record in Pac-12 play. A somewhat predictable defeat to Arizona ended its regular season, despite hanging with the Wildcats and even having tied the game at the half.
Norman Powell had a huge game going 8 of 17 from the floor en route to 21 points. Youngster Kevon Looney struggled and was nearly invisible, which is not what he needs to improve his potential NBA Draft stock. Should Looney flounder in this tournament, it’s still possible he choose not to declare for the NBA draft in June. Looney has averaged 11.8 points and 9.2 rebounds per game this season, however, and a strong double-double player in a major conference usually has a place in the first round.
Powell and Bryce Alford are the workhorses offensively, though, accounting for 31.5 points per game and Alford also dishes out five assists per. The Bruins are a dangerous three-point shooting team, connecting on 36.3 percent. Alford has attempted 216 threes this season and connected on 79 of them, while Isaac Hamilton is also a good marksman off the bench, having hit 57 threes this year in averaging 10 points per game.
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