Sweet 16 info previews and picks

[Raji]

Tennessee guard and leading scorer Chris Lofton has a minor leg injury but is expected to play Thursday against Louisville.

Team spokesman Craig Pinkerton says Lofton wore a walking boot on his foot as a precaution while the Vols rested on Monday and was expected to practice on Tuesday.

Coach Bruce Pearl told The Knoxville News Sentinel that Lofton ''tweaked'' his ankle in the first half of Tennessee's 76-71 overtime win against Butler in the NCAA tournament.

Lofton leads Tennessee with 15.5 points per game.


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[Raji]

UCLA's Luc Richard Mbah a Moute was set to undergo an MRI on his sprained left ankle and Josh Shipp was recovering from strep throat Monday, putting two of the Bruins' starters at less than full strength.

Top-seeded UCLA (33-3) plays Western Kentucky (29-6) Thursday night in the NCAA tournament regional semifinals in Phoenix.

Coach Ben Howland said the MRI on Mbah a Moute was being done as a precaution.

"His ankle was swollen pretty severely yesterday," he said. "I was surprised and a little bit down by it. We don't anticipate there being any issue."

Mbah a Moute returned Saturday night against Texas A&M after missing two games. He had two points, eight rebounds, six turnovers and four fouls in 32 minutes of the Bruins' 51-49 second-round victory.

"It hurt his timing that he hadn't practiced," Howland said. "His rebounding, defense and double-teams created a lot of havoc that helped us. I don't think we can advance much further without him."

Howland said the junior forward would play Thursday "barring any unforeseen abnormality on the MRI."

Shipp was given antibiotics for strep throat after Saturday's game, when he was scoreless in 37 minutes but came up with a key block on A&M's final shot to preserve the victory.

The Bruins didn't practice Monday, but Shipp spent more than an hour working on his shooting, Howland said. The junior forward who averages 12.8 points has been in a prolonged slump, including an 0-for-20 stretch from 3-point range earlier this month.

Howland said Shipp took about 325 shots, most under game-type conditions, and made 91 of 100 free-throw attempts.

"He shot it very well," Howland said. "We'll do some extra shooting tomorrow. I probably have waited too long to do that."

Mbah a Moute, Shipp and guard Russell Westbrook were a combined 3-for-18 against A&M. Westbrook had five points, four rebounds and went 0-for-3 from long-range in 39 minutes. His game-ending dunk was disallowed a day later by the NCAA because the ball didn't leave his hands before time expired.

Darren Collison and Kevin Love scored 40 of UCLA's 51 points against the Aggies.

"That's an aberration," Howland said. "We want to get more production out of our other three starters."


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[Raji]

Davidson Wildcats
Odds: +4 ½, 127 vs. Wisconsin
Game time: Fri. March 28, 7:10 p.m. ET

A star was born on Sunday when Stephen Curry turned his team’s showdown with the big, bad Georgetown Hoyas into his own personal shooting gallery. If you weren’t sold on Dell Curry’s kid after he hung 40 on Gonzaga in the first round, then you couldn’t deny his pure shooting brilliance after the Georgetown win.

Georgetown used guards Jonathan Wallace and Jeremiah Rivers to pressure Curry at the perimeter and they did an excellent job. The constant harassment caused Curry’s accuracy to dip to 38 percent from the field and 33 percent from three-point range, but Curry showed he is a shooter and he didn’t shy away from shots, still managing 30 points including five three-balls.

Even as a five-point underdog against this beast from the Big East, Davidson never stumbled, never looked scared. No matter how tight the press got, Curry or point guard Jason Richards almost always found an outlet to the open man and got good looks at the basket. Their ball movement on offense was outstanding.

Don’t get the wrong impression, even though Curry is getting all the press, this Davidson team isn’t a one-man show. The offense actually goes through Richards, who led the nation this season with eight assists per game and his average hasn’t gone down in the tournament. Andrew Lovedale isn’t the biggest forward at 205 pounds, but he’s done some serious work in the paint so far with 23 points and 18 rebounds in two games.

Wisconsin will try to bully the Wildcats with their bigger, burlier players, but Davidson knows how to finesse their way to wins. Muscle didn’t work for Georgetown and that team had more skill to go with the size. Could the Cinderella story continue?

Pick: Davidson


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[Raji]

Kansas

Odds: -11 ½ vs. , O/U 142

Game time: Friday, March 28, 9:40 p.m. ET



If you’re going to beat Kansas inside the arc, you have your work cut out for you.



The Jayhawks are the No. 3 team in the nation on field goal shooting (50.3 percent) and it showed over the weekend. Any one of their starters can take you one-on-one in man-to-man situations and beat you to the hoop.



On defense, it’s even worse. They stay so tight to their opponents in man-to-man coverage, they might as well be the numbers on their jerseys. They are so smooth at switching off screens and preventing the ball from getting inside and UNLV had the field goal numbers on Saturday to attest to that - 12-of-45.



Overcoming that will be tough for Nova. The Cats have one of the best lane penetrators in college hoops in Scottie Reynolds, but it’s going to be a trying task. I can’t see the Cats getting it done consistently unless they hit the three-pointer early and open up the floor. I watched them struggle against Georgetown in the Big East tournament, which has the No. 1 field goal percentage defense in the nation.



Guards Mario Chalmers and Brandon Rush have big time talent on offense and both can dish and rebound. Forwards Darnell Jackson and Darrell Arthur aren’t the biggest forwards in the nation, but both are great rebounders and dribblers who can pour in double digits on you in a hurry.



They Jayhawks don’t take a ton of shots from downtown if they don’t have to, but they are efficient from out there when they need to be. They rank 10th in the nation in three-point shooting at 40 percent.



Some Kansas bettors might be a little concerned about the health of Chalmers coming into this one. He bashed his head on a drive to the hoop with 1:30 left against UNLV and was a little stunned on the play. Just before they went to a commercial after that, however, you could see him mouth the words “I’m fine” and he dropped a trey on the Jayhawks’ next possession just to prove it.



Guard-heavy Nova has its work cut out here. The Wildcats match up pretty well against Kansas in terms of style, they just don’t have the talent or the defense to hang with KU for 40 minutes.



Pick: Kansas -11 1/2


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[Raji]

Tennessee Volunteers
Odds: +2 ½, 146 vs. Louisville
Game time: Thurs. March 27, 9:55 p.m. ET

By some incredible stroke of Volunteer luck, Tennessee managed to cover the spread in their second-round game by an ulcer-inducing half-point. A better-than-advertised Butler squad battled the Vols from wire-to-wire and took Tennessee to overtime before falling short of the win.

Butler’s Adam Graves was far-and-away the best player on the floor as he repeatedly slashed his way through the Tennessee defense and made every spectator in the building forget about that win in Memphis back in February over the then-No. 1 Tigers. Tennessee is vulnerable in a lot of ways, particularly on man-to-man defense, and unless Bruce Pearl can make some quick-fix adjustments, they could be sitting ducks against the Cardinals.

Chris Lofton, the Vols leading scorer through the season, has disappeared in the Tournament. He scored just five points against American and nine points against Butler and it won’t help that he’s been in a walking boot since Sunday after “tweaking” his ankle. Pearl says he’s expected to play but they’ll need Lofton to be 100 percent if they have any hope of hanging with Louisville.

Tyler Smith, JaJuan Smith and Wayne Chism have picked up the slack while Lofton has been AWOL, but the Volunteers have lost their touch from three-point range. They’re just 11-of-38 (29 percent) from distance in their two tournament games. That was a shot that they've relied on throughout the season, but against Louisville, which has the sixth best three-point field goal defense in the country, it may continue to haunt them.

Tennessee started the Butler game with J.P. Prince at point guard, but he didn't deal well with the pressure and finished the game with six turnovers. Pearl didn't play the sophomore in the overtime period. UT must get its point guard situation sorted out before Thursday's game because the pressure will be turned up even higher against Louisville's full-court press.

Pick: Louisville


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[bgoodzhawks]

Wsu will beat NC. Will be under. NC hasn't seen defense like this.

[bgoodzhawks]

Stanford and UCLA of course. Davidson will keep it going.

[bgoodzhawks]

Also like WV, l'ville, MS, and Kansas.

Eight team parlay.