Last Updated on March 27, 2010 12:15 pm by Anthony Rome
Elite Eight Preview
The Kentucky Wildcats and Kansas State Wildcats are both favored by four points for their respective Elite Eight games on Saturday. Here’s the latest from BroburySports.com.
East top-seed Kentucky is facing 2nd-seed West Virginia
West 2nd-seed Kansas State is facing 5th seed Butler.
Let’s start with Kentucky as that’s a great matchup. Everyone was saying they would struggle with Ivy League Cornell, but the final was 62-45 as eight-point ‘chalk.’
Cornell would have had to go crazy from three-point land to keep it close, as Kentucky had the athletic advantage at every position. The Cats look every bit like the favorite to win March Madness with Kansas out of the way.
West Virginia lost point guard ‘Truck’ Bryant before yesterday’s game against Washington, but they didn’t seem to miss him. They took care of business 69-56 as 4 ½-point favorites.
WVU has the forwards and size to match up with Kentucky, but can they handle the terrific backcourt tandem of John Wall and Eric Bledsoe? Look for coach John Calipari to pressure the few guards WVU has left and try to force the tempo.
Butler took down No. 1 seed Syracuse 63-59 as six-point dogs. They won the turnover battle 18-7 and took advantage of big man Arinze Onuaku being out. It might have been a completely different game if he was healthy.
K-State needed double overtime (101-96) to get past Xavier. They were also lucky to get the ‘push’ as five-point ‘chalk.’ Xavier is underrated athletically and they matched up well with K-State despite the backcourt combination of Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente combining for 53 points.
Butler doesn’t match up well in the frontcourt against the K-State. They have too many athletes who can rebound and make life miserable for Matt Howard (Butler’s only real inside player).
Butler needs to slow the tempo down and keep the game in the 70s at the highest. They’ve won 23 games in a row, even if the competition wasn’t great, and you can’t count them out.
Bet on Saturday’s Elite Eight at BroburySports.com!
Posted: 3/27/10 12:15AM ET