2011 NCAA Tournament Second Round – Southwest Region
#4 Louisville Cardinals vs. #13 Morehead State Eagles, Pepsi Center, Denver, CO
Thursday, March 17, 2011, 1:40 pm Eastern, TV: TBS
Opening Line: Louisville -8
Current Line: Louisville -9.5
Opening Total: 131
Current Total: 131
Money Line: Louisville -525 / Morehead St. +425
The fourth-seeded Louisville Cardinals (25-9) may be playing with a chip on their shoulders in their Southwest Region second-round matchup with the 13th-seeded Morehead State Eagles (24-9) on Thursday at the Pepsi Center in Denver. The Cardinals (-9.5) expected to get a better seed in the NCAA tournament after advancing to the Big East Conference championship game, where they lost 69-66 to #9 Connecticut last Saturday.
Louisville was seeded #3 in the Big East tournament and probably should have gotten the same in the Big Dance. Instead, the Huskies nabbed a #3 in the West Region after becoming the first team ever to win five games in five days over the course of a college basketball tournament. Fellow Big East school Syracuse also earned a #3 in the East Region, and the Cardinals beat the Orange 73-69 at home in their only meeting and swept UConn in two games during the regular season.
The team’s last six losses prior to the Big East title game all came on the road, five of which were against opponents who are among the league’s 11 teams in the NCAA tournament. Louisville then beat two NCAA tournament teams on the way to the conference championship game, crushing #11 Marquette 81-56 last Thursday and edging #2 Notre Dame 83-77 in overtime in the semifinals on Friday.
Despite the loss to UConn, the Cardinals are 7-1 against the spread in their last eight games. They faced the Eagles in the NCAA tournament two years ago, routing them 74-54 in the second round but failing to cover the 21.5-point line.
That was the last time Morehead State made it to the Big Dance, and the team has won 12 of its last 13 after winning the Ohio Valley Conference tournament. The Eagles avoided the one team they lost to during that stretch in the conference tourney en route to the title and automatic bid.
Murray State defeated Morehead 70-62 on February 24 but was upset by #4 Tennessee Tech 64-59 in the semifinals of the conference tourney as the top seed after winning the regular-season title. The Eagles were seeded #2 and routed #3 Austin Peay 68-49 in the semifinals before pulling off an 80-73 victory in the tourney title game.
Morehead State is led by 6-foot-8 senior center Kenneth Faried, who tied Ralph Sampson for second all-time in double-doubles with 74 after scoring 24 points and grabbing 15 rebounds against Tennessee Tech. Faried notched his 27th double-double of the season and earlier broke Tim Duncan’s modern-day NCAA record for career rebounds.
While Eagles definitely have not played the same level of consistently good competition as the Cardinals did in the Big East, they did schedule some top-rated opponents during the first month of the season. Morehead lost at Florida 61-55 and at Ohio State 64-45 back in November, covering the spread in both games. The OVER has cashed in five of the team’s last six games overall, but the UNDER is 9-1 in the last 10 at neutral sites.
Now that you have read this NCAA tournament college basketball betting preview featuring Louisville & Morehead State, check out the NCAA basketball odds on this and all the games to compare the best lines at multiple sportsbooks.
