{"id":22290,"date":"2012-03-16T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=22290"},"modified":"2012-03-15T16:40:15","modified_gmt":"2012-03-15T21:40:15","slug":"ncaa-tournament-bracket-2012-norfolk-state-spartans-vs-missouri-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/ncaa-tournament-bracket-2012-norfolk-state-spartans-vs-missouri-tigers-22290\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Tournament Bracket 2012: Norfolk State Spartans vs. Missouri Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 15 Norfolk State Spartans vs. No. 2 Missouri Tigers
\nFriday, 3\/16\/12, 4:40 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Missouri -21.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Missouri -21.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 146
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 144
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Missouri Tigers are one of the more explosive offensive teams in the 2012 NCAA Tournament<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Norfolk State will make its first-ever NCAA Division I Tournament appearance this week and will be the No. 15 seed in the West Region.\u00a0 The Spartans head coach is very confident in his team after capturing the Mid-Eastern Conference.\u00a0 \u201cThe only spot where we might be challenged could be the power forward spot,\u201d commented Anthony Evans this week.\u00a0 Offensively, the team starts four seniors, while the opening unit has three players averaging in double figures.\u00a0 Norfolk State is 5-1 ATS when playing on a neutral court and the \u201cunder\u201d is 4-2 in those contests.<\/p>\n

The Spartans are certainly up against it in this matchup due to the No. 15 seed being 4-104 all-time against the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.\u00a0 Senior center Kyle O\u2019Quinn is certainly a player to watch in becoming the first player in MEAC history to be voted the league\u2019s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.\u00a0 He is averaging 15.9 points and 10.4 rebounds and will need help from senior guard Chris McEachin, who is second on the team and ninth in the MEAC in scoring 12.8 points per game.<\/p>\n

Missouri is enjoying a record-setting season and rolled to its second Big 12 Tournament Championship in four years with three impressive wins, which included a 90-75 win over the Baylor Bears as four-point favorites.\u00a0 The Tigers have won five straight entering the NCAA Tournament, which marks the longest winning streak for the program going into the event since 1986-87.\u00a0 The team is making its 25th appearance in the Big Dance and owns a 22-24 all-time record.\u00a0 Missouri is 4-0 ATS in March games and all four have gone \u201cover\u201d the total.<\/p>\n

The Tigers are becoming very familiar with the West Region, being placed in that particular part of the bracket in eight of their last 12 NCAA Tournaments.\u00a0 Four of the five starters are averaging in double figures, with senior guard Marcus Denmon averaging 17.6 points per game.\u00a0 Missouri will look to senior guard Kim English in the leadership department, as he comes off a 19-point performance versus the Baylor Bears in the conference championship.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Spartans due to their 6-1 ATS mark as a neutral-site underdog, while the Tigers are 1-3 ATS in first round tournament games.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college basketball handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No. 15 Norfolk State Spartans vs. No. 2 Missouri Tigers Friday, 3\/16\/12, 4:40 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Missouri -21.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Missouri -21.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 146 Current Total:\u00a0 144 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Norfolk State will make its first-ever NCAA Division I Tournament appearance this week and will be the No. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[3267,6322,6593,5805,6592,433,3,6591],"class_list":["post-22290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-big-12-conference","tag-kim-english","tag-kyle-oquinn","tag-marcus-denmon","tag-mid-eastern-conference","tag-missouri-tigers","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-norfolk-state-spartans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22290","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\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22291,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22290\/revisions\/22291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}