Solid Free Play winner on the Celtics covering at the Magic 84-82 last night! We switch our attention to the college ranks Thursday with similar results...
Despite all the love the Panthers, Pittsburgh-backers better be real careful in this match up, as the Musketeers are no pushover, and I fully expect them to keep this game competitive throughout.
We know from last year that this Xavier team has the talent necessary to hang with the big boys, and that'll be true once again here tonight. You see, in order to match up with Pitt, you better have size, and that's exactly what Xavier has with Brown, Love, Frease and McLean. True, of the 3, only Brown has any real offensive talent, but the other 3 are true bigmen and provide more than enough beef to slow stud bigman DeJuan Blair.
In fact, these two teams are built quite similar, in that, they both have solid big men (Blair vs Brown), solid wing players (Young vs Raymond), and plenty of depth. Of course, we give the edge in the PG department to Pitt's Fields, but the guard trio of Anderson, Jackson, and Holloway match up very well overall with Pitt's backcourt.
Finally, the two main edges Pitt uses to win games are all but nuetralized in this contest - rebounding and defense. Xavier excels in both areas, and if you need any proof, check out their double-digit win over a resurgent Wisconsin team (which knocked out red-hot FSU) Sunday! They not only won the battle of the boards (34 to 28), but held the Badgers to just 28% shooting... So do you really want to lay this many points with the Panthers?! I don't, as Xavier keeps this game well within the number Thursday night!
Take Xavier plus the points over Pittsburgh in this college hoops match up.
Drew Gordon 3-26-09
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