{"id":22483,"date":"2012-03-24T10:13:03","date_gmt":"2012-03-24T15:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=22483"},"modified":"2012-03-24T10:13:03","modified_gmt":"2012-03-24T15:13:03","slug":"ncaa-tournament-2012-florida-gators-vs-louisville-cardinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/ncaa-tournament-2012-florida-gators-vs-louisville-cardinals-22483\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Tournament 2012: Florida Gators vs. Louisville Cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 7 Florida Gators vs. No. 4 Louisville Cardinals
\nSaturday, 3\/24\/12, 4:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Florida PK
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Florida -1
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 131
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 131.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Louisville Cardinals are a step away from reaching the Final Four<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Florida has won all three of its 2012 NCAA tournament games by a double-digit margin, including a convincing 68-58 win over the Marquette Golden Eagles as one-point underdogs on Thursday.\u00a0 The Gators are playing in their 12th Big Dance under the direction of head coach Billy Donovan, posting a solid 28-9 mark overall, which includes an 18-2 record since 2006.\u00a0 Not many experts picked the program to reach this point, especially after late-season defeats to Georgia, Vanderbilt and Kentucky twice.\u00a0 \u201cIt goes to show the losses made us stronger,\u201d commented Gators junior guard Kenny Boynton.\u00a0 Florida is 5-3 ATS when playing on a neutral court this year.<\/p>\n

The Gators are making their sixth Elite Eight appearance in program history, tallying a 4-1 mark in the previous five games.\u00a0 Florida has registered a solid 17-9 record against Big East Conference opponents during the Donovan era, including a 3-1 mark in the NCAA tournament.\u00a0 All five players that are expected to start are averaging double figures in scoring, with Boynton leading the way in averaging 16.0 points per game.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to note that the team is 1-7 all-time against Saturday\u2019s opponent.<\/p>\n

Louisville is coming off a dominating defensive performance in handing the Michigan State Spartans a 57-44 defeat as 5.5-point underdogs in the Sweet 16, which caused the \u201cunder\u201d to cash in nine of the team\u2019s last 10 games.\u00a0 \u201cWe knew we were coming to a war,\u201d commented Cardinals center Gorgui Dieng.\u00a0 The program is now looking to advance to its ninth NCAA Final Four, as it has garnered an 8-3 record when playing in regional championship games.\u00a0 Louisville will put its 7-0 ATS record on the line when playing on a neutral court inside the US Airways Center in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals are certainly led by a defense that has limited opponents to 60 or fewer points in 23 of 38 games this season.\u00a0 Louisville ranks third nationally in allowing opponents to shoot just 37.7 percent from the field.\u00a0 The team has a collective 79-61 record against current members of the Southeastern Conference, while Pitino is 19-2 against Florida in his career, including wins in 12 straight meetings.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Cardinals due to their 12-2 ATS mark following a straight-up win, while the Gators are 12-12 ATS as a favorite.<\/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. 7 Florida Gators vs. No. 4 Louisville Cardinals Saturday, 3\/24\/12, 4:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Florida PK Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Florida -1 Opening Total:\u00a0 131 Current Total:\u00a0 131.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Florida has won all three of its 2012 NCAA tournament games by a double-digit margin, including a convincing 68-58 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":19832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[3881,4765,499,5741,556,3,755,4249],"class_list":["post-22483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-billy-donovan","tag-elite-eight","tag-florida-gators","tag-kenny-boynton","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-rick-pitino","tag-us-airways-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22483","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=22483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22484,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22483\/revisions\/22484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}