BYU vs Florida

Written by Jack Jones - Google +

Heading out to the West Region, the 7-seed BYU Cougars meet up with the 10-seed Florida Gators in an opening round contest in the 2010 NCAA Tournament. We find the line of BYU -4.5 over Florida when taking a look at the NCAA basketball odds set for this game.

The Cougars enter this game with a 29-5 record and a 13-3 mark in Mountain West play, finishing second in the MWC to New Mexico during the regular season. BYU has a lot of pressure on their shoulders, because though they have seven NCAA Tournament appearances in the last 10 seasons, they haven’t won a game in the Big Dance since 1993. The Cougars entered the NCAA Tournament as the 8th seed the past two seasons, each time losing to the Texas A&M Aggies. BYU has a superstar in Jimmer Fredette who puts up 21.7 PPG and 4.7 APG. They have four players averaging double-digits in scoring, and this is certainly one of the more talented teams in BYU history after setting a school record for wins this season.

After winning back-to-back national titles in 2006 and ‘07, the Florida Gators spent the past two seasons in the NIT. But not this year, as Florida got an at-large berth after finishing 21-12 overall and 9-7 in SEC play. Their brutal schedule certainly helped, as they faced 11 teams ranked in the RPI Top-50. This was the third straight year that Florida has collapsed down the stretch, though, as they lost four of their final five games this season. But their overall body of work was good enough to get in. And a few lucky shots from Chandler Parsons didn’t hurt, as he hit a 75-footer at the buzzer to beat NC State in overtime and another 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat South Carolina. This is a very balanced team, with five players averaging between 10.4-and-13.6 PPG this season.

Comments

Got something to say?