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NCAA Basketball Pick – March 10th

The final day of college basketball’s regular season tips off at Value City Arena in Columbus, where the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Illinois Fighting Illini will do battle on the NCAA basketball betting lines.

The Illini are almost certainly in the NCAA Tournament without a shadow of a doubt, but they are going to want to be careful and make sure they get one more win somewhere just to remove all doubt. They’ll have the chance to do that in next week’s Big Ten Tournament for sure, but this one here in Columbus would be an even bigger victory. Head Coach John Groce really wants this team to run up and down the court, but it hasn’t worked in the Big Ten. There have been some more successful games than others along the way, but what is really killing this team is its lack of good shooters. The Illini are only shooting 42.3 percent from the floor and 33.0 percent from long range this year, and both of those figures leave them ranked in the 200s. The good news is that G Brandon Paul, G Tracy Abrams, and G DJ Richardson can all take over a game, but the question is whether they will all be able to against a stout Ohio State defense. Playing against the best defensive teams in the Big Ten has been problematic this year for the Illini, and this might be no exception.

The Buckeyes were being questioned a few weeks ago, but after taking down their last four games, they are most certainly in the field of 68 and are certainly on the Top 5 lines of the dance. Winning this one and playing well in the Big Ten Tournament could see this team move all the way up into the Top 2 slots. The question is whether this team will play well just five days after knocking off the Indiana Hoosiers in Bloomington. That’s about as big of a win as any team could ask for, though historically, teams that win those games come out the next game and don’t play to their fullest potential. In fact, the last three times that Indiana lost, the team that beat it came out within two games and was beaten in a game that it had no business losing. This would qualify as one of those games for the Bucks. F Deshaun Thomas and G Aaron Craft both had good games in Bloomington this week, and they are the heart and soul of this team and the only chances that OSU has of making it to the Final Four this year.

Prediction:

We’ve got a hunch that this is a game that isn’t going to go well for the Buckeyes. Odds have it, this will be a sloppy game with a lot of bad shots taken, and the score probably won’t be all that high. However, we have a heck of a lot more confidence in the Illini right now, knowing that they are going to be playing with their hair on fire, as opposed to Ohio State, which might be reserved after the huge win on Tuesday. Illinois 62 – Ohio State 57