BYU Cougars Vs.  Florida Gators
Mar 24, 2011 at 7:27 PM EST
Opening Line:  Florida -2.5
Current Line:  Florida -3
Opening total: 149
Current total: 149
Opening Moneyline:  Fla -150 / BYU + 130
Current Moneyline:  Fla -160 / BYU +140

For all that Fredette is, and for all that he is talked about, it is his teammates that are starting to receive credit and most coaches now realize that to beat BYU, a team must do more than just keep Jimmer Fredette in check, but also limit his teammates, such as Jackson Emory, Noah Hartsock, and Charles Abouo.

“Let’s see what they’ll do with Jimmer’s ball screens,’’ BYU coach Dave Rose said. “The rest of our team will react to that. If they’re going to come off that ball screen and just trap him and make him get the ball out of his hands, then we’re going to be playing with an advantage the whole night because we’ll have four offensive players attacking three defensive players.  If they’re going to go underneath that thing, then Jimmer is probably going to get a couple of shots off, So we all know, the whole team understands, what the first few minutes are.’’

Florida is favored by most experts, but BYU is a good team and it seems that the great players always seem to shine when the pressure is the greatest.

Some betting trends:

Florida is 6-1 SU in their last 7 games and the total has gone OVER in 8 of Florida’s last 10 games.

Comparison Statistics:

BYU Overall Scoring  81.61
Florida Overall Defense  62.77

BYU Road Rebounds 36.93
Florida Home Rebounds Allowed  30.96

Florida Overall Scoring  71.80
BYU Overall Defense  64.47

Florida Home Scoring 72.65
BYU Road Defense  71.00

Florida Home Rebounds: 37.39
BYU Road Rebounds Allowed 34.79

All five Gator starters will receive significant minutes in this game.  Look for Macklin and Alex Tyus to get more involved with the slight bump in playing time.  Erving Walker and Boynton combine to average 28.7 points per game and account for 5.9 assists too, meaning they have a hand in 56% of Florida’s points.  He has scored 18 (against UC Santa Barbara) and 21 (vs UCLA) and he shot 5 of 8 from the floor in both games.  It was nice redemption from the 8 point performance he turned in for the SEC championship game against Kentucky.

Fredette averages 28.8 points per game, but BYU is a very good scoring team (8th in the nation) and Emery and Davies combine for 23.7 points per game.  Emery, a 6’3″ junior guard, is second to Fredette in scoring with 12.6 points per game, 2.7 assists per game, and 2.8 steals per game.  He’ll play passing lanes extremely well and will always look to push the ball.  Emery shoots 35.9% from three (89 of 248) and put up 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting against Gonzaga last game.  He didn’t play particularly well against Wofford in the opening round (8 points on 2 of 8 shooting), but he has only had back to back scoring under 10 points games once (1/26 vs SDSU & 1/29 vs New Mex).  He hit a three in all but three BYU games this season, but BYU still won the matchups in which he did not hit a three, which might be expected when a team has a record as solid as BYU’s.

While most are selecting Florida for this matchup, I am not going to write BYU off by any means.  Their scoring prowess makes them very tough for anyone to beat and just having one of the best players in the tournament makes them that much more of a threat.