Either Saint Mary’s or UConn will be favored against us on Thursday. SMC would be a 1 point favorite, UConn would be somewhere in the 3.5 range. But then Kansas was a 3.5 point favorite too. That’s why they play the game.
In case you wondered, since the NET is purely for tournament selection purposes, they don’t update it during the tournament, so we remain #21.
Which team would be a better matchup?
No idea.
St. Mary’s.
UConn
Wondered why we would not be favored a tad, and then looked closer at their regular seasons. UConn beat Alabama. St. Mary’s beat Vandy and only lost by 5 to Houston. Plus they are both seeded higher than us. Give Muss a week to prepare and I like our chances against most anybody, and give us a week to heal up and I like our talent against most anybody (unless shooting counts for something 
), but it’s never easy against any team that has already won two games in the Tourney and advanced.
Oh, and thank God whoever we play we won’t be playing the UConn women .
Hope we get St. Mary’s. UConn has a true dominating big.
Illinois and Kansas did not have true dominating bigs. That helped getting Kamani on the court. He makes clutch plays around the rim.
Would much rather play SM, we would dominate the boards which is a key for our lane game and put backs. That said, this team has tasted the winning blood and I believe we beat either team… giving Muss that much prep time will be hard to overcome.
UConn can match our length and physical play, and they shoot the 3 much better than we do. They go nine deep. They crushed Bama early in the year, and have several other quality wins. They have not lost a game by more than three points in a couple of months. A very tough matchup.
St Mary’s only plays six or seven guys. They will have to slow tempo down, and count on their guards to hit threes and handle the scoring burden. Their guards are crafty on offense, and play good team defense, but our perimeter players would be bigger and more athletic. Their have a couple of guys with size and bulk, but for once we would not be playing a team where a big guy can drag his defender outside to defend the three ball.
PJ I also like that matchup better. Everything is gravy from here on out. Maybe our hogs can come out and blow an opponent out with killer instinct. That’s what I would really like to see.
I’ll be surprised if UCONN loses to the Gaels.
Saint Mary’s would be the better matchup for Arkansas. UConn has frontline size and big guards.