6:09 pm
April 6

#5 Auburn v. #1 Virginia

Who will WIN this matchup?

#5 Auburn Tigers (30-9)

#1 Virginia Cavaliers (33-3)

 

Current odds:

Auburn Tigers: (+240)

Virginia Cavaliers: (-300)

 

• The spread for the game is Virginia by 6 points.

• Behind dynamic guards Bryce Brown and Jared Harper, the Tigers break teams down by pushing the ball and finding open shooters on the wings, but coach Bruce Pearl knows that Virginia’s top-rated defense presents a unique challenge. “Now, when you play against a team like Virginia, whose efficiency numbers are off the chart both offensively and defensively and they play at one of the slowest paces in college basketball, freedoms that I give my players are going to be challenged because we’d better take advantage of possessions, because they are every single time,” Pearl told reporters. “And there will be fewer of them. So we can have fewer empty possessions than we would typically have. Otherwise, we’re going to get beat.” Harper and Brown combined for 50 points and six steals in the 77-71 victory over Kentucky in the Midwest Region final to help the Tigers survive the season-ending knee injury to star forward Chuma Okeke suffered the previous game versus North Carolina.

• The Cavaliers have some standout guards of their own and received a combined 49 points from Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome in the win over Purdue, with Guy seizing a career-high 10 rebounds and Jerome handing out a game-high seven assists. Diakite averages 7.5 points and 4.3 rebounds but those numbers have soared to 13.0 and 9.0, respectively, in the tournament. Sophomore guard De’Andre Hunter (14.9 points per game) ranks second to Guy (15.2) on the team’s scoring list and has at least 10 in 22 of his last 23 contests.

• Virginia yields only 55.4 points per game and holds opponents to 28.7 percent shooting from 3-point range.

5/10
Confidence
StreakSmarter Pick
#1 Virginia Cavaliers
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