March Madness has reached the Sweet Sixteen weekend with no Cinderella in sight, with the favorites plowing ahead and, for the most part, getting to where they were expected to get to…here. The only double-digit seeding that found a path to this round is Arkansas, a 10-seed with a roster that doesn’t look out of place amongst these remaining 16 teams. Starting us off is this Thursday matchup between the BYU Cougars and Alabama Crimson Tide.
The #2-seed Crimson Tide, as you’d expect from a team with the pedigree of a 2-seed, haven’t faced any truly stiff competition to this point, although Robert Morris flirted with an upset in the opening round, before Alabama got serious and took care of business down the stretch. In the Round of 32, St. Mary’s was up, presenting no real challenge.
The Cougars bring a different challenge to the floor. They can shoot the ball and should thrive in this matchup with a Bama team that doesn’t waver from their run-and-gun approach. BYU has the roster to go shot for shot with the Tide. They’ll gladly get into a flow of going up and down the floor, creating open looks. They’re one of the best shooting teams in the country.
While they are dependent on hitting threes, that plays into their favor in this one. They’ll get the looks. On the defensive side, they’ve made important adjustments throughout the season resulting in forcing opponents into taking more threes, rather than getting to the rim, which is serving them well.
BYU likes playing fast, and Alabama will accommodate, as they rank as the #1 fastest tempo in college basketball. The Cougars have issues with teams that play an on-ball pressure game. That’s not what they’re facing tonight. This is not a defense that is designed to create a lot of problems for offensive teams.
We should see an impressive offensive performance from BYU. While we do lean for them to cover the +5, we like the Team Total Over 84.5 (-115) a bit more.
Play: BYU team total Over 84.5 (-115)