Sunday's Best NCAAB Bets
Stony Brook Seawolves at No. 23 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Nothing gives Notre Dame problems like size and athleticism.
The Fighting Irish struggled to find anyone on its roster that could contain the elite play of Kentucky freshman guard Terrence Jones in a recent loss. When Jones began to attack the rim in the second half, Notre Dame had no answers on how to stop him.
Notre Dame also struggled in a four-point win over Gonzaga when the Bulldogs went big and began to bully the Fighting Irish down low. The team’s starting center, Ty Nash, stands a mere 6-foot, 7-inches and has trouble clearing the paint. The result is a team-rebounding approach that can sometimes slow down a dangerous fast-break offense and hurt the Fighting Irish who go cold sometimes in half-court sets.
But don’t expect either of these to be a huge issue against the Seawolves. Stony Brook settles for jumpers, is shooting a mere .369 percent from the floor and has a minus-1.7 rebound margin.
The Fighting Irish aren’t a perfect team – but they will be good enough to handle the Seawolves.
Pick: Notre Dame
Arizona Wildcats at North Carolina State Wolfpack
Few players in the country are excelling like Derrick Williams of the Wildcats.
As a freshman, he was expected to possibly redshirt and adjust to the college game. However, after looking amazing in practice he forced coach Sean Miller’s hand to give him big minutes. And he delivered. Williams led Arizona in scoring, rebounding and field-goal percentage, the first freshman to lead the program in those categories since freshmen became eligible nearly four decades ago. For this, he was named the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and garnered a first-team all-conference selection.
"It's not like he was a high school All-America or a guy people had been paying attention to since the 8th grade," Miller said. "He was late to come to a lot of things and you can see that when you coach him. But that also means he has a lot of room for improvement."
But it’s hard to tell if he can play much better. This season, Williams leads the Wildcats with 19.5 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. He also is hitting better than 65 percent of his shots from the floor and burying 71.4 percent of his threes.
The Wolfpack are improving, but won’t have an answer for Williams.
Pick: Arizona