Ethan Law
Here we go guys the biggest play of the college basketball season which will be my one and only game of the year selection! The match-up we are looking at takes place in the South Regional site at Little Rock, Arkansas between the #8 seeded Mississippi St Bulldogs (22-10 SU & 14-15 ATS) and #9 seeded Oregon Ducks (18-13 SU & 15-13 ATS). Most breakdowns of this match-up have concentrated on the fact Mississippi State is by far the better defensive team when you do some comparative analysis between these teams, and for the purposes of this analysis I will concede that point on paper. Indeed, the Bulldogs are the 2nd ranked defensive team in the country, allowing only .369 percent shooting. While that is very impressive, it is a little misleading, because this years watered down version of the SEC is filled with inefficient offensive teams. Compiling great defensive numbers against teams that cant really shoot all that well is hardly an accomplishment I consider worth noting. Indeed, only one SEC team even cracks the nations top 40 in FG efficiency percentage. Unfortunately for MSU, their opponent, is the 12th best shooting team in the country as they are shooting an incredible .485 from the field this season! Not only that, but the Ducks are one of the best 3 point shooting team the Bulldogs have faced all year where they are making .401 behind the arch! Only two of Mississippi States opponents this year were more efficient from the 3 point line (Tennessee & Vanderbilt) and they lost to both of them. While it is certainly true both those teams are better than Oregon, there is no mistaking that the best way to beat a team that plays rugged inside defense is to shoot the threes effectively. Indeed, each of Oregons 4 leading scorers are proficient from behind the arc, all shooting at least .359. The best of the bunch, Maarty Leunen, made an eye-popping .509 percent of 114 attempts! So we have established that the Ducks have the perfect weaponry to attack the Bulldogs solid defense, now lets look at how they match-up when Mississippi State has the ball. Defensively the Ducks are to say the least a little vulnerable. They allow a very pedestrian .443 shooting percentage, but remember, those numbers were against the best competition the country has to offer. The Pac-10 is by far the most talented conference in the country top to bottom with only Oregon St being an easy mark. The rest of the league is littered with big men who score and defend, and dynamic guards and wing players that will be NBA lottery picks. Probably the most important factor in this game is the fact the Bulldogs simply cannot shoot well outside. That weakness will allow the weak defensive Ducks to pack the inside with a zone, forcing the inept shooting Bulldogs to launch shots from the perimeter. Considering that the Bulldogs are shooting a miserable .334 from outside the arc, that fatal flaw should ultimately be their undoing. Certainly their inside game will find some success, but will it be enough to keep up with the high octane Ducks? I think not. I have seen many people comparing Mississippi State to Washington State because they play rugged and determined defensively. That is true, and Wash State did just knock Oregon from the Pac-10 conference tourney also, but defensively is where their similarities end. Washington State is a very proficient team from the perimeter, and Mississippi St IS NOT.
The line on this game has for the most part stood solid at Miss St -2.5 since opening. Since the wagering on this game is fairly evenly split (61% of all wagers on Miss St as of this writing) I do not expect any major jumps either way. Both teams were 8-7 ATS this season when playing away from their home courts, so there is no discernible advantage there. Those types of trends are meaningless at this time of year anyway, as it is all about match-ups. The overriding intangible factor in this game is the level of competition each has faced this season. Oregon played in the best conference in the land, and Mississippi State played in a watered down version of the SEC compared to past years. Its also hard to argue about the very fact that talent wise Oregon dominates this match-up and arguably has not one, not two but three potential NBA prospects. Expect the Ducks ability to shoot three-pointers to open up the inside for them and weaken the Bulldogs resolute inside defense as Oregon pulls away for an upset win.
PLAY 3* UNITS ON OREGON +2.5
INDIAN COWBOY
PLAY OF THE DAY SELECTION: SAN DIEGO vs CONNECTICUT
Play: INDIAN COWBOY PLAY OF THE DAY: CONNECTICUT -12
Comments: INDIAN COWBOY PLAY OF THE DAY: CONNECTICUT -12 Today's plays are exclusive to Maui Experts. I will release other opinion plays into the forums, but the three plays released here at Maui Experts will be exclusive to this site for today and today only as the site will be doing upgrades to their server forcing me to release plays a little earlier than expected.
INDIAN COWBOY SELECTION: SIENA vs VANDERBILT
Play: VANDERBILT -6.5
INDIAN COWBOY SELECTION:VILLANOVA vs CLEMSON
Play: CLEMSON -6
DOC' S GOY
Take Boise State over Louisville
The Cardinals play strong defense, but the Broncos will follow up their exciting overtime victory in Las Cruces with a strong performance in Birmingham. The Broncos are no fluke as they won the regular season and conference tournament title in an underrated WAC and have three players scoring over 14 points per contest. The Cardinals are entering this game on a two game losing streak and like to keep the scoring in the sixties and thus will have trouble covering this double-digit number. Boise keeps it close easily covering the spread, but the Cardinals move on in a hard fought victory.
Great Lakes
5* St Joe
4*Ark
4*Miss St
3*Davidson
3*Louisville
4*Portland
3*Clev
3*Denver
CHAN
5* over Tenn
4* over Butler
Root
CHAIRMAN - MISSISSIPPI ST
MILLIONAIRE - GEORGETOWN
PERFECT PLAY - SOUTH ALABAMA
BILLIONAIRE - WESTERN KENTUCKY
NO LIMIT - ST MARYS
MONEY MAKER - GONZAGA
Jeffersonsports
St Marys under 138
Special K Phone
10* W Kentucky,Ark
7* Gonz,St Joes
5*St Mary's
The 'Sportsmen'
5* West Ken+ 1 unit
5* Austin Peay 1 unit
5* Butler- 1 unit
BIG AL
Championship--Vanderbilt
Blue chip--St Joes
Line mover--Golden St
10 dimes--Hoosiers
Offshore steam--Tennessee
Computer boys--Georgetown
EDDIE ROMAN
Today: Vanderbilt -6.5
Vanderbilt Commodores -6.5 over Siena
Here's another blowout. Vandy just scores too many points and just like I said yesterday when teams play tougher schedules, they are more prepared for this time of the year and Vanderbilt played a very tough SEC schedule. They also played a decent non conference schedule against teams like Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Utah State, Valpo, South Alabama and UMass. Those aren't top tier teams but they are decent ones and Vandy easily beat them all.
Vandy also played a team from Siena's conference, Iona and the Commodores beat them by 24. Siena ain't staying in this game, there's no way. Vandy just scores so many points and they've done this against great competition, don't tell me they aren't going to score on Siena. They are going to light this team up.
Just too much talent, they've been in too many big situations and they have too much experience for the Saints to contend with. Take Vandy here, they are the play.
Cal Sports
4* W Kentky, Miss St, Cavs, Nuggets
3* Conn, Tenn over, Butler under
Ron Meyer
Chalkboard.....Vanderbilt
Coaches Consensus.....Indiana U
Locker Room.....Mississippi State
Live Dog.....South Alabama
Playbook.....Connecticut
Dallas Sportsman.....Clemson
Fairway Jay Added
Golden State Under 208
Texas Arlington +25
Mississippi State -2.5
Texas Over 140 -110
Sports Bank 400* Game Of Month
Gonzaga