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Northern Iowa vs UNLV

The #8-seed UNLV Rebels take on the #9-seed Northern Iowa Panthers in the Midwest Region of the opening round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament on Thursday. The winner of this game will likely take on the No. 1 overall seed, Kansas, in the next round. The lines show this being a very tight game, with UNLV -1 over Northern Iowa as the point spread.

Northern Iowa won the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title and the Conference Tournament, the first time that’s been done since 1997-98 by Illinois State. The Panthers proved they could play with the big boys last year in the tournament, losing to Purdue 51-56. But they are now getting their highest seed in school history with a much better shot to advance to the second round. Their defense will be the key, as they held three opponents to a combined 132 points in the MVC Tournament. The previous record was 147 by Southern Illinois in ‘06. The Panthers rank second in the nation in scoring defense at 54.3 PPG.

UNLV earned an at-large bid after finishing in 3rd place in the Mountain West Conference. The Rebels went 25-8 this season and 11-5 in one of the better conferences in the country. They lost 45-55 to San Diego State in the MWC Tournament, and they can expect to play part in another low-scoring affair against the Panthers in the opening round. Northern Iowa will be trying to stop UNLV’s best player, Tre’Vown Willis. He is putting up 17.3 points/game. A big key for the Rebels is team rebounding, as this could be an issue considering they don’t have a single player averaging more than 5.8 RPG this season.