Saint Mary’s and Alabama meet on Sunday in the Round of 32. Let’s breakdown some March Madness picks and predictions for the game.
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No. 7 St. Mary’s vs. No. 2 Alabama
Cleveland, OH – Sunday 6:10pm ET
Alabama did not play well at all in a first round win over Robert Morris, needing to go to an injured Grant Nelson late in the game to get them over the hump. The plan was clearly to save Nelson, but that didn’t work out. That said, it was nice to see that he’s capable of coming in and making an impact ahead of the matchup against St. Mary’s.
I expect Nate Oats to have his team ready to go early, with plenty of motivation to use after how the Tide played against a 15-seed. On the other end of the spectrum, the Gaels had to dig deep to erase a 12-point deficit to Vanderbilt, and snuck away with a last second victory. Another sluggish start against a more talented and highly motivated team could be in the cards here. That pushes me onto the double result here, for ‘Bama to lead at halftime and win the game.
I’m also going to play the under on the total here, which generally is playing with fire in an Alabama game. However, the Gaels have absolutely no shot in this one unless they do their best to play this game at their own pace. The Crimson Tide rank fourth in offensive efficiency and play at the fastest tempo in the country. Speed this game up, and St. Mary’s gets run out of the gym, and it knows this. The Gaels rank 359th in Tempo and are eighth in defensive efficiency. Ultimately, I think ‘Bama finds enough offense to win the game. But this won’t be your typical SEC game. I played the under in the first round against Vandy, and will go back to it here. I’m not worried about ‘Bama being a little sloppy on defense. This is all about the pace the Gaels know they need to play.
March Madness Pick: Alabama Halftime/Fulltime (-130) 1-unit
March Madness Pick: UNDER 149.5 (-115) 1-unit
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All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests.
