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NCAA Basketball Pick – March 22nd

The Syracuse Orange coasted through the first game of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, and they are going to be in for a bit more of a fight on Saturday when the second round of the dance closes out with their game against the California Golden Bears.

The Golden Bears were part of the Pac-12 resurgence on Thursday night, as all of the teams that were playing out of this conference found their way into the Round of 32. Cal was one of the two No. 12 seeds that advanced, joining the Oregon Ducks. These two combined to become the first two teams from the same conference to advance as No. 12 seeds into the Round of 32 in NCAA Tournament history. As it was, the game against the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels was a tough one from start to finish, as the Mountain West reps never gave up in their conquest to get to the third round of the tourney. G Justin Cobbs and G Allen Crabbe both put together nice games, and they are going to be the keys to winning this one. These two combined to put up 32 points on Thursday, and they’ll have to probably do better than that to be able to keep the Golden Bears moving on.

The Orange played in one of the worst games to watch on Thursday night, destroying the Montana Grizzlies 81-34. The 2-3 zone that Head Coach Jim Boeheim deploys forced G Will Cherry to shoot just 1-of-12 from the field, and no one on Montana finished with more than two field goals. The Grizzlies made just four three-pointers on 31 tries and shot 20.4% from the floor. On top of that, no one on the team scored more than five points. On the other end of the court, Boeheim was able to really rest his stars, as no one played more than 29 minutes on the day. Still, G Brandon Triche was good for 20 points and four steals, and he was one of the three on the team that scored at least 12 for the ‘Cuse. This is a team that is going to play lockdown defense for the full 40 minutes of this one, and that is going to make life tremendously difficult on whomever the foe is.

Prediction:

Syracuse is the consummate defensive team, and it is going to be a terror to try to beat in this one. We think that the 2-3 zone is going to take care of Crabbe and Cobbs from the outside, and unless all of a sudden, those two are going to be able to figure out how to shoot around these lanky defenders, we just don’t see how the Golden Bears are going to survive. Syracuse 72 – California 61