Gators and Gauchos tip off in Tampa
When the Southeast Region’s second seeded Florida Gators take on the 15th seeded Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara in a second round contest on Thursday in Tampa, they’ll mostly have to guard against overconfidence.
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#2 Florida (26-7, 13-3 SEC) vs. #15 UC Santa Barbara (18-13, 8-8 Big West)
Date/Time: Thursday, March 17, 6:50 PM ET
Venue: St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, FL.
Broadcast: TBS
Money Line: Florida -1200, UCSB +775
Spread: Florida -13
Over/Under: 130
The Gators were the best team during the regular season in one of the power conferences (the SEC), and was rewarded with a high seed. The Gauchos finished their regular season just one game over .500 in a mid-major league (the Big West), and needed to win four conference tournament games just to get into the big dance.
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Florida defeated fellow tournament teams Florida State, Morehead State, Kansas State, and Xavier out of conference. The Gators also dominated play in the SEC, sweeping Georgia, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt – the last two of those included a third victory in the SEC tournament. Billy Donovan knows how to guide the Gators to the Promised Land, having done so in back-to-back seasons in 2006 and 2007.
UCSB is in the tournament for the second straight season and fifth time ever, but are searching for just their second all-time win in March Madness. The Gauchos only quality victory came in December against UNLV. They lost three in a row late in February, and needed a win over Cal Poly just to finish the regular season with a winning record.
This doesn’t mean that Donovan and the Gators will look past UCSB, because they won’t. They know that the Gauchos won three straight games to win the Big West title, including an upset over regular season champion Long Beach State – a team that swept two regular season contests from UCSB.
The Gators also know that the gauchos can score points. Orlando Johnson is a player the gators must account for on Thursday. Johnson averaged a Big West leading 21.1 points per game, while also leading the Gauchos with 6.3 rebound per contest. Florida counters with balanced scoring. Four players are averaging double figures per game in points, led by Erving Walker (14.4 PPG) and Kenny Boynton (14.1 PPG).
The odds makers have the Florida Gators as a -13 point favorite with an over/under of 130.
Check out the latest College Basketball Odds here.
Prediction: Florida will not take the Gauchos lightly, but they should find a way not to win this game, but to win by double digits.
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Florida Gators Betting Trends:
- Florida is 10-2 SU in its last 12 games
- The total has gone OVER in 7 of Florida’s last 8 games
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