It’s three weeks and one day until Selection Sunday, the NFL and college football are finished, and a baseball game that means anything won’t be played for more than a month. A nation turns its lonely eyes to college basketball, and if you’re looking for a way to enjoy the game both financially and aesthetically, we have some potential tips below.
Notre Dame +8 at Syracuse
The Irish might have started to piece it together, and have won three in a row over Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and at Maryland. Nepo-point guard Braeden Shrewsberry, son of head coach Micah, has started to find the downtown range going 12-25 during the win streak. His fellow freshman and backcourt mate Markus Burton has been terrific as well, averaging 16.2 points and 4.2 assists per contest this season. This is the time of year freshman start to turn into sophomores, and ND has a bright future.
On the other side Syracuse is still figuring out who they are in a post-Boeheim world, having alternated wins and losses in their last six. While they’ve improved from 185th in KenPom Adjusted Defense last season to 56th this year, they’ve struggled with quality guard play. DJ Horne dropped 32 on them last time out, and UNC’s Cormac Ryan and RJ Davis combined for a pretty efficient 37 and six assists.
BYU -0.5 1H vs. Kansas State
The Coogs are long, shooty, and very fun under Mark Pope, with seven players averaging more than nine points a game in a free-wheeling offense that’s eighth in adjusted efficiency in the country. And they can get after it as well defensively, as they’re 24th in the country in defending three-pointers.
K-State has seen the wheels fall off, losing seven of their last eight because they simply can’t shoot. The Wildcats shoot just 30.3% from 3, and turn it over on 21.3% of possessions. That is just bad, and the Mormons will make it even worse with their length.
When these teams played two weeks ago, the Coogs were up 36-27 at halftime before winning 72-66. Expect something akin to that here, even with the hardwood in purple instead of blue.
Charlotte -2 at Tulsa
A case of two teams trending in opposite directions. Before Charlotte got shellacked on Wednesday at Memphis, they had won 11 of 12, with their only loss at first place South Florida. The 49ers have an elite big in Igor Milicic (13.0 points, 8.5 rebounds per game), and are one of the best teams in the American around the rim.
Meanwhile Tulsa has lost five of six, shoot 31.6% from three-point range, and turn it over on 19% of possessions. Freshman guard PJ Haggerty is a scorer if not a shooter, but he won’t have a ton of room in the paint against Charlotte.
Expect a big bounce back from the 49ers newly-permanent coach Aaron Fearne on the road in a game they should win big.