2011 NCAA Tournament Second Round – Southwest Region
#6 Georgetown Hoyas vs. #11 VCU Rams, United Center, Chicago, IL
Friday, March 18, 2011, 9:50 pm Eastern, TV: TNT
Opening Line: Georgetown -4
Current Line: Georgetown -6
Opening Total: 133
Current Total: 134
Money Line: Georgetown -250 / VCU +210
The 11th-seeded VCU Rams (24-11) were one of the most controversial selections in this year’s NCAA tournament but validated themselves on Wednesday when they beat USC 59-46 rather easily in the First Four at Dayton. The Rams will now try to beat their second opponent in three nights on Friday when they square off against the sixth-seeded Georgetown Hoyas (21-10) in the second round of the Southwest Region at the United Center in Chicago.
The Rams are one of three teams from the Colonial Athletic Conference that made the original field of 68, which obviously became the Round of 64 on Thursday when the second round got underway. Colonial tournament champion Old Dominion lost to Butler 60-58 on a last-second shot Thursday while regular-season champ George Mason faces Villanova earlier on Friday.
Virginia Commonwealth had made a pretty nice run in the conference tourney as the #4 seed, knocking out the top-seeded Colonials in a 79-63 rout in the semifinals as 5-point underdogs. The Rams went on to lose to #2 Old Dominion 70-65 in the conference championship game as 4.5-point dogs. They are 3-6 against the spread in their last nine games overall including the win over the Trojans, and the UNDER has cashed in six of their past eight.
Georgetown (-6) enters the Big Dance on a four-game losing streak and has failed to cover six in a row. However, the Hoyas have a good excuse, as starting point guard Chris Wright broke his right hand on February 23. They have not won a game without him and will be welcoming him back with open arms after he underwent successful surgery to repair the injury, led by leading scorer Austin Freeman, who has not gotten consistent help ever since then.
“Having him back in our lineup is really good,” Freeman said. “Just to have his ability to penetrate, get to the basket, create his own shot and also be able to create shots for his teammates. It’s going to be good to have that back in our lineup, and also have his voice back on court. He’s one of our captains, one of our leaders.”
Freeman scored 20 points in Georgetown’s 79-62 loss to Connecticut in the second round of the Big East Conference tournament last Wednesday while Jason Clark scored a team-high 23. But Clark averaged just eight points in the other two games Wright missed, putting too much pressure on Freeman to carry the offensive load.
Now that you have read this NCAA tournament college basketball betting preview featuring Georgetown & VCU, check out the NCAA basketball odds on this and all the games to compare the best lines at multiple sportsbooks.
