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Texas Stanford Picks, Predictions, & Odds
The NCAA Tournament is set to get back underway this week on Thursday and Friday to find out who moves on to the Elite 8, and who is packing their bags and heading home for the season. One of the big time matchups on Friday is #2 Texas vs. #3 Stanford. While all four of the #3 seeds advanced to the Sweet 16, Texas is one of only two #2 seeds that made it. Lets take a quick look at each team and we will give you our picks on the game.
#2 Texas looked impressive in the first round against #15 Austin Peavy, and while they looked like they had the game against #7 Miami under control, they let Miami back into it late. One big thing Texas has going for it this weekend, is that the games in the South Region are being played in Houston, TX. The Longhorns have been a force all season long, and have beaten two of the #1 seeds in Kansas and UCLA, and also have a win against #2 Tennessee. The Longhorns will go as far as sophomore PG D.J. Augustin takes them. He comes in averaging a team high 19.2 PPG and gets his teammates involved with a team high 5.8 APG. Without Augustin at the top of his game this is a very beatable team, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have any other solid players behind him. A.J. Abrams comes in averaging 16.6 PPG and is a real threat from downtown, while Damion James is the man on the boards bringing in 10.7 RPG, while scoring 13.2 PPG.
#3 Stanford cruised past #14 Cornell in round 1, but when it met up with #6 Marquette in round 2 things didn’t go so well. as they needed overtime to take home the victory. They did all of this against Marquette without their coach, as he was ejected in the first half for walking on the court to argue a call. The Cardinals finished the season second in the Pac 10 behind UCLA, and while they were never able to beat the Bruins, they had plenty of success against the rest of the league. The Cardinals are a pretty defensive minded team, but when it comes to scoring they rely heavily on the Lopez brothers. Brook Lopez comes in leading the team in scoring with 19 PPG and in rebounding with 8.1 RPG. Brother Robin Lopez comes in second in scoring at a little over 10 PPG and second in rebounding at 5.7 RPG. Against Marquette they combined for over half the teams output scoring 48 of their 82 points, with Brook leading the way with a 30-point effort in the win.
This was a lot easier than it looked as we are sold on the Longhorns after their first weekend of play in the NCAA Tournament. At the very same time a Stanford team we were high on coming into the tournament, really let us down as they barely made it out of the second round. Abrams has emerged as a true go to guy as he has put in back-to-back 26-point games. While we like what Stanford brings to the table we just don’t think they will be able to keep the Longhorns in check. While Augustin hasn’t scored a ton he has done a great job of getting his teammates involved with 8 assists in both games. When Texas is really playing good basketball they seem to do well against the spread as well, in the last 2 seasons they are 17-6 ATS, after winning at least 15 of their last 20 games.
This is our lock of the Sweet 16 when it comes to an over/under. Both teams come in averaging over 70-points a game, and while they both play pretty solid defense they still give up a good sum of points. While we aren’t worried about Texas putting up their share of points, Stanford could struggle to find their rhythm. One thing that has us thinking they will is the over is 8-2 when the spread is with in 3 points. Also after winning at least 15 of 20 games the over is 12-3 for Stanford. What we are really trying to say is that Texas is going to win big and the over is going to get demolished.
Final Score - Texas 78 - Stanford 70
So head over to Sportsbook.com today and take our advice on these two plays, and win big this weekend. Sportsbook.com has all your betting needs for the NCAA Tournament. Feel free to leave any comments in the comment box.
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