Texas -1 5.5* NCAAB POD
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Texas is not supposed to be in right? Their coach is going to be fired, but I'm not buying it this is a very good team #1 2 point defense in the country and really played well down the stretch against some tough competition. This 2 point defense allows 37.8% and Butler will rely heavily shooting 71% of their shots from 2 point range and are ranked 203rd in 2 point % so they are going to have a real tough time scoring points in this one. Meanwhile their defense is ranked 153rd in 2 point defense and Texas 2 point offense is better at 130th. 9 of 10 of Butler's losses were against man defense which is what Texas will play. Texas also 4th in rebounding % and have a huge size difference along with the fact that they are a much deeper team relying on their bench for 40% of the minutes. Isiah Taylor is the better guard in this match up and the combo of Myles Turner, Holmes and Rolley will be too much for the perennial Cinderella team in Butler.
UCLA +4 2.2* BONUS[/]
SMU got snubbed last year and they beat the defending champions in their conference championship to get into the tourney. Meanwhile UCLA should not be in everyone "expert" on TV says they don't belong and this should surely motivate this young team to prove that they do. There are also a lot of red flags with this SMU team, the fact that they are 0-4 vs. the top 35 and have only played 1 team in the top 25 while UCLA has played 8. The strength of schedule is not even close and while SMU played Uconn they really got lucky because UCONN could not score, but UCLA is used to playing tough defenses and they have more scoring options than the Huskies do. SMU's star guard Moore is short and will have some issues in this game with the size of the guards from UCLA who will go up against him.
