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NCAA Tournament: Second Round West Region Fearless Predictions, Lines, Storylines
What's going to happen in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament? Check out the Fearless Predictions, lines and storylines for every West Region game.
March 16, 2016
What’s going to happen in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament? Check out the Fearless Predictions, lines and storylines for every West Region game.
NCAA Tournament: Second Round West Region
Who’s going to win each Second Round game of the NCAA Tournament? Here are the Fearless Predictions for every West Region game.
How are the predictions so far?
West Region: 6-3 SU, 6-3 ATS
No. 1 Oregon (29-6) vs. No. 8 St. Joe’s (28-7)
Why Oregon Will Win: The offense is just too good, too fast, and too dangerous when it’s able to get the transition game going. Inside and out, this is a machine with the firepower to get out on St. Joe’s right away and put it away. St. Joe’s can score – but not like this.
Why St. Joe’s Will Win: the Hawks don’t make a slew of mistakes to give Oregon the chances to get out on the move. They have the outside shooting game to keep up if and when this gets into a firefight, and they’re great at keeping things moving for easy baskets. If they win the turnover battle, and are better from deep, they’ll be right in this.
What’s Going To Happen: St. Joe’s will have their moments, and it’ll bomb away and keep bombing, now that it doesn’t have to deal with the Cincinnati defense, but Oregon’s pressure will be too much. Expect a shootout.
Line: Oregon -6.5
Prediction: Oregon 84, St. Joe’s 72
No. 3 Texas A&M (27-7) vs. No. 11 Northern Iowa (23-12)
Why Texas A&M Will Win: Can the Aggies defend the three? Yup. They’re among the best in the country at attacking the perimeter and keeping high-powered teams under wrap from the outside. They bring the pressure from the outside, force mistakes, and contest everything. A&M is a bad matchup for UNI.
Why Northern Iowa Will Win: Can the Panthers survive the pressure and get hot anyway? Good at making the extra pass, and fearless when it comes to taking contested shots from the outside, UNI will keep firing no matter what. As good as A&M might be defensively, it’s about to deal with a team playing with house money – and can hit the boards, too.
What’s Going To Happen: The Texas win was an all-timer, but Northern Iowa will have a few more problems with A&M defense. No half-court miracles this time around.
Line: Texas A&M -6.5
Prediction: Texas A&M 80, Northern Iowa 70
No. 2 Oklahoma (26-7) vs. No. 10 VCU (25-10)
Why Oklahoma Will Win: Keep the threes rolling. VCU might be able to shoot from the outside, but Oklahoma will get hot and stay hot being able to bomb away at will. This is a solid, sharp Sooner team that shouldn’t give away the easy points and the easy baskets that VCU needs to run its transition game.
Why VCU Will Win: The Rams don’t get flustered. They’re full of too many tested players, so when OU goes on a roll – and it will – VCU should be able to take its time and keep chipping back. There’s no panic, partly because it’s so aggressive defensively and able to come up with the timely steals.
What’s Going To Happen: Buddy Hield will keep it all going. The Sooner star was hot in the First Round, and he’ll be enough to overcome a strong charge from a very, very good Ram team. It’ll be a fun game that’ll go down to the wire.
Line: Oklahoma -6.5
Prediction: Oklahoma 78, VCU 73
No. 4 Duke (24-10) vs. No. 12 Yale (23-6)
Why Yale Will Win: But Yale really is that much better on the boards. If you can outrebound Baylor and battle like the Bulldogs did in the stunning win, you can beat a relatively soft Blue Devil team up front. Yale is relentless, but …
What’s Going To Happen: Duke will bring the energy and effort, too. Yale might be the fun story, but it won’t have the firepower in the second half. It’ll be a game until the final five minutes, and then the Blue Devils will pull away.
Line: Duke -5.5
Prediction: Duke 69, Yale 63
