{"id":14296,"date":"2011-03-19T00:08:04","date_gmt":"2011-03-19T05:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=14296"},"modified":"2011-03-19T00:08:04","modified_gmt":"2011-03-19T05:08:04","slug":"uconn-and-cincinnati-play-for-berth-in-sweet-16-in-west-region-third-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/uconn-and-cincinnati-play-for-berth-in-sweet-16-in-west-region-third-round-14296\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn and Cincinnati Play for Berth in Sweet 16 in West Region Third Round"},"content":{"rendered":"

NCAA Tournament West Region Third Round
\n#3 Connecticut Huskies vs #6 Cincinnati Bearcats
\nVerizon Center, Washington, DC
\nSaturday, March 19, 2011, 9:40 pm Eastern, TV: TBS
\nOpening Line: UConn -2 1\/2
\nCurrent Line: UConn -3 1\/2
\nOpening Total: 129 1\/2
\nCurrent Total: 130
\nMoney Line: UConn -165 \/ Cincinnati +145<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Connecticut
Kemba Walker and UConn take on Big East rival Cincinnati in the West Region Third round in Washington DC. The Huskies are 3 1\/2 point favorites in the game. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the earliest two teams from the same conference have played against each other since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in the 1980’s. It used to be a rule that two teams from the same conference couldn’t play against each other until the elite 8 round but they changed that rule a few years ago. This year the Big East sent a record 11 teams into the NCAA tournament so some teams from the Big East would meet earlier int eh tournament. The #3 seed Connecticut Huskies take on the #6 Cincinnati Bearcats in the third round of the west region, with a berth in the Sweet 16 on the line. The Bearcats finished the regular season with a 26-8 record and finished 6th in the Big East with an 11-7 record. The Bearcats have won 4 of their last 5 games including a 78-63 pounding of Missouri in the second round. Four Bearcats scored in double figures including forward Yancy Gates who had 18 points and 11 rebounds. UConn was 27-9 in the regular season and finished 9th in the Big East with a 9-9 record. The Huskies had an incredible run through the Big East tournament wining 5 games in 5 days to claim the title. The thoughts that UConn might be fatigued after such a run were quickly put to rest as UConn destroyed Bucknell 81-52 in the second round of the NCAA tournament. National player of the year candidate Kemba Walker had 18 points and 12 assists to lead the Huskies, along with 8 rebounds for the near triple-double. The winner of this game will play the winner of San Diego St and Temple in the regional semifinals in Anaheim.<\/p>\n

Connecticut leads the overall series against Cincinnati 6-2. The two teams played only once this season February 27 in Cincinnati. UConn won that game 67-59. The Huskies are 2-2 straight up and 2-1-1 ATS in the last 4 versus the Bearcats. UConn played 21 games against teams in the NCAA Tournament, the most of any team in the field. They went 12-9 in those games. The Bearcats went 6-8 against tournament teams.\u00a0 Cincinnati is 15-25 against conference opponents the last 2 seasons. Connecticut is 19-11 ATS in all games this season, including 9-0 in neutral site and tournament games this season. The Huskies won the Maui Invitational in November and the Big East Championship last week. UConn is 17-9 ATS against teams with winning records this season.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati has no significant injuries right now. The Bearcats are led by forward Yancy Gates who is averaging 11.9 points, 7 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.3 blocks a game. He leads the team in points, rebounds, and blocks. Guard Dion Dixon averages 11.8 points, 3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.1 steals a game. Guard Sean Kilpatrick averages 9.9 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.4 assists. Point Guard Cashmere Wright averages 8.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.3 steals a game. He leads the team in assists and steals. The Bearcats are outscoring opponents 69-59. Cincinnati is shooting 43.8% from the field and 33.9% from 3-point range. Bearcat opponents are shooting 41% from the field. Cincinnati shoots 66.8% from the free throw line. Cincinnati averages 35.6 rebounds and has a rebounding margin of +4.7. They average 14.3 assists and 11.6 turnovers a game. The Bearcats force 14.2 turnovers a game on defense. Cincinnati averages 7.4 steals and 3.7 blocks a game.<\/p>\n

Connecticut has no significant injuries right now. The Huskies are led by dynamic guard Kemba Walker. The 6’1″ Walker is averaging 23.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.9 steals a game. He leads the team in scoring, assists, and steals. Guard\/forward Jeremy Lamb averages 10.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.6 assists a game. Forward\/center Alex Oriakhi averages 9.9 points, 8.6 rebounds and 1.7 blocks a game. He leads the team in rebounds and blocks. Guard Shabazz Napier averages 8.3 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.7 steals a game. UConn is outscoring opponents 74-66 on the year. The Huskies are shooting 43.5% from the field and 33.3% from 3-point range. Husky opponents are shooting 39.9% from the field. The Huskies shoot 75.6% from the free throw line. UConn averages 39.8 rebounds a game and have a rebounding margin of +4.7. UConn averages 13.3 assists and 11.6 turnovers a game. They force 11.9 turnovers a game on defense. They average 6.6 steals and 5.6 blocks a game.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati is a better defensive team but UConn is better on offense. These two teams know each other very well and this should be a close game. I don’t think Cincinnati has an answer for the red hot Walker, but few teams do. He should be the difference for the Huskies.<\/p>\n

Our college basketball handicappers are red hot in the tournament. Don’t miss out on any more winners from now until the championship game next month. \u00a0 \u00a0
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NCAA Tournament West Region Third Round #3 Connecticut Huskies vs #6 Cincinnati Bearcats Verizon Center, Washington, DC Saturday, March 19, 2011, 9:40 pm Eastern, TV: TBS Opening Line: UConn -2 1\/2 Current Line: UConn -3 1\/2 Opening Total: 129 1\/2 Current Total: 130 Money Line: UConn -165 \/ Cincinnati +145 This is the earliest two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40249,"featured_media":9795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[559,1152,3887,3631,4676,2499,4723,3,4694,4722,1378],"class_list":["post-14296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-big-east","tag-cincinnati-bearcats","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-college-basketball-handicapping","tag-college-hoops","tag-connecticut-huskies","tag-march-madeness","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-tbs","tag-third-round","tag-west-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14296"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14301,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14296\/revisions\/14301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}