I've lost money on West Virginia before and even when they needed a win the most and were handed gifts like 3 starters suspended for a first half from Marquette they still could not put it together. Now West Virginia has talent and they will give Uconn a run for their money specifically because of two things. Offensive rebounds and FT's. Uconn has been awful from the line and West Virginia is one of the better offensive rebounding teams.
However, I think Uconn can over come both. They seem like they are about to get on a run much like last year. This team has plenty of talent compared to last year and many think they have more with Drummond at Center. The experience is there with Lamb Oriaki, Roscoe Smith and Napier from last years team and actually the return of Jim Calhoun has done wonders. Don't think it's a big deal he inserted Napier as the starter and you see other players getting key playing time. Uconn unlike years past can shoot the ball from the perimeter and yesterday shot 8-13 for 61.5%. West Virginia is not having the best year defensively despite their last game against South Florida. This team has allowed 45.9% in their last 5 and 48.2% on the road this year. Their offense is not good enough to over come that. First and foremost they go up against Uconn the Big East's #1 2point FG% defense. They lack an inside scoring presense in my opinion and will have to get points from the perimeter. There is a reason why this team took 7 more attempts from 3 than they usually do when these two met earlier in the year. West Virginia however has shot 30.7% from three. This falls into Uconn's hands in my opinion and is simply just a bad match up for West Virginia.
As far as FT's go Uconn is only letting opponents get there 15 times per game so I don't think it plays a critical role. I think Boatright makes some key three's in the second half. He's shooting 42.4% from the perimeter and is somewhat of an unknown by most. Drummond will avoid getting to the foul line and Uconn will move on.
I love Georgetown, but not by 6 points as Pitt has played better down the stretch and Georgetown has been a bit inconsistent, but they have revenge here after losing to Pitt earlier in the year and they really need some momentum moving forward. Georgetown allowed Pitt to shoot 52% fromt he field and they were -11 in rebound margin. Those two things absolutely won't happen. Georgetown only allows 42.5% on the road while Pitt's defense struggles allowing 46.2%.
