March Madness Preview: Winthrop battles Notre Dame

Four games will keep March Madness heads busy throughout the afternoon, highlighted by Billy Packer’s Cinderella choice – Winthrop – against the Fighing Irish of Notre Dame.

While the Midwest Regional may show sixth-seeded Notre Dame (-3.5, -175) as a favorite in the first round, No. 11 seed Winthrop (+3.5, +155) is the one feeling the pressure to produce a victory as the teams meet Friday at Spokane Arena in Washington.

With their highest seed in school history, the Eagles (28-4) are looking to finally break through for their first win at the NCAA tournament. Making their seventh appearance in nine years under coach Gregg Marshall, Winthrop has gained a cache of respect throughout college basketball.

The Eagles’ only losses this season all were against ranked teams from major conferences — North Carolina, Maryland, Wisconsin and Texas A&M. Three of those games came on the road and two were decided by fewer than eight points.

In other afternoon games:

• No. 12 Long Beach State will take on No. 5 Tennessee. Tennessee (-7, -320) has never had much success in the postseason. The Volunteers are hoping to change that in this season’s NCAA tournament. The fifth-seeded Vols look to shake off another disappointing SEC tournament performance when they face 12th seed Long Beach State (+7, +260) on Friday in the South Regional at Columbus, Ohio. Tennessee (22-10) entered the conference tournament with four straight wins and an 8-2 record in its previous 10 games, but lost 76-67 to LSU in the first round. The Vols have not advanced past the second round of the SEC tourney since falling in the 1991 championship game.
• No. 15 Texas A&M Corpus-Christi will face No. 2 Wisconsin. Keeping up with one of the nation’s highest-scoring teams may be just what Wisconsin (-13) needs to begin the NCAA tournament. With their offense struggling in recent weeks, the second-seeded Badgers hope to make the right adjustments in time for their opening-round matchup with No. 15 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (+13) on Friday in the Midwest Regional at Chicago. The total for this game is 132.
• No. 10 Creighton will square off with No. 7 Nevada. One or two mid-majors seem to make noise every year in the NCAA tournament. Nevada (-2) and Creighton both hope to be one of those teams this season. Nevada looks to shake off a loss in its most recent game Friday night when it faces Creighton (+2) in a South Regional first-round matchup at New Orleans. The total for this game is 134.

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Tags: College Basketball Odds, March Madness, March Madness Bracket

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 12:55 am and is filed under Basketball, March Madness, NCAA Basketball, NCAA Final Four, Sports, Sports Betting, Sportsbooks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.