{"id":22380,"date":"2012-03-18T10:06:19","date_gmt":"2012-03-18T15:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=22380"},"modified":"2012-03-18T10:06:19","modified_gmt":"2012-03-18T15:06:19","slug":"ncaa-bracket-2012-norfolk-state-spartans-vs-florida-gators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/ncaa-bracket-2012-norfolk-state-spartans-vs-florida-gators-22380\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Bracket 2012: Norfolk State Spartans vs. Florida Gators"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 15 Norfolk State Spartans vs. No. 7 Florida Gators
\nSunday, 3\/18\/12, 6:10 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Florida -15
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Florida -14.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 141
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 143.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Florida Gators have never lost to a school from the MEAC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Norfolk State shocked the world in picking up an 86-84 win over the Missouri Tigers as 21-point underdogs on Friday in the second round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament.\u00a0 \u201cWhen you\u2019ve made history and continue to try to make history, it\u2019s kind of hard to refocus,\u201d stated Spartans star Kyle O\u2019Quinn.\u00a0 \u201cWe don\u2019t want it to end.\u201d\u00a0 The Spartans grabbed their first-ever win over a ranked opponent in pulling off the tournament\u2019s biggest upset so far.\u00a0 Norfolk State is 8-4 ATS as an underdog the last two-plus years and the \u201cunder\u201d is 5-6 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Spartans have three starters that average double figures in scoring, with O\u2019Quinn leading the way in scoring 16.2 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.\u00a0 Norfolk State had three players score 20-plus points, while all 86 points were scored by starters.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to note that a 15th seed has never reached the Sweet 16 and this program is just 0-1 all-time against Southeastern Conference schools.<\/p>\n

Florida is appearing in its 15th NCAA Tournament and has registered a 30-12 all-time mark in the event, including a convincing 71-45 win over the Virginia Cavaliers as 2.5-point favorites two days ago.\u00a0 The Gators certainly know that they must maintain their focus in facing an upset-minded opponent on Sunday.\u00a0 \u201cEveryone loves the Cinderella story, underdog stories,\u201d commented Gators center Patric Young.\u00a0 The program is 6-3 all-time in the round of 32 games and has tallied a perfect 22-0 all-time mark against current MEAC teams, including a 20-0 record under head coach Billy Donovan.\u00a0 Florida is 11-7 ATS in March the last two-plus years.<\/p>\n

The Gators are extremely balanced on the offensive end, with all five starters averaging in double figures, with junior guard Kenny Boynton leading the way in averaging 16.0 points.\u00a0 Florida is the nation\u2019s top 3-point scoring team, hitting 9.8 shots per game from beyond the arc.\u00a0 The program finished the regular season second in the SEC and 26th nationally in averaging 76.1 points per game.\u00a0 Boynton ended up being the third-leading scorer in the SEC and had 12 games of 20 points or more.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Gators due to their 13-3 ATS mark in NCAA Tournament games as a favorite, while the Spartans are 2-3 ATS after allowing 80 or more points.<\/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. 7 Florida Gators Sunday, 3\/18\/12, 6:10 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Florida -15 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Florida -14.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 141 Current Total:\u00a0 143.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Norfolk State shocked the world in picking up an 86-84 win over the Missouri Tigers as 21-point underdogs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[6602,499,5741,6593,6591,3875],"class_list":["post-22380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-2012-ncaa-tournament","tag-florida-gators","tag-kenny-boynton","tag-kyle-oquinn","tag-norfolk-state-spartans","tag-southeastern-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22380","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=22380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22381,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22380\/revisions\/22381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}