{"id":10821,"date":"2011-03-22T19:43:42","date_gmt":"2011-03-22T19:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/?p=10821"},"modified":"2011-03-22T19:43:42","modified_gmt":"2011-03-22T19:43:42","slug":"sweet-16-2011-who-makes-the-elite-8-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2011\/03\/sweet-16-2011-who-makes-the-elite-8-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweet 16 2011: Who Makes the Elite 8 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sweet 16 college basketball betting<\/a> preview rages on with the two late games on Thursday, courtesy of your favorite sports betting blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(5) Arizona Wildcats vs (1) Duke Blue Devils<\/p>\n

Thursday, March 24, 9:45 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Sportsbook favorite: Duke -8.5<\/p>\n

Duke is over the big scare it got from Michigan in the round of 32 \u2013 we think. We\u2019ll find out when the Blue Devils face a team many sports betting<\/a> sharps pegged as a popular sleeper entering the tournament: Arizona.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats haven\u2019t been perfect but they\u2019ve been resilient and exciting. They opened with a comeback thriller over Memphis and ground out a win against Texas after that with a little help from the referees. Predictably, Derrick Williams has been the man. He\u2019s had decent if inconsistent support from various Arizona role players so far.<\/p>\n

As long as Duke is over its heebie-jeebies, it has to feel confident entering this matchup. Not only are Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler playing great as always, Kyrie Irving is rounding into form as he works his way back from a toe injury. If beating Arizona won\u2019t be a challenge for No.1 seed Duke, covering the 8.5-point spread could be.<\/p>\n

(8) Butler Bulldogs vs (4) Wisconsin Badgers<\/p>\n

Thursday, March 24, 9:57 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Sportsbook<\/a> favorite: Wisconsin -4.5<\/p>\n

Butler is emerging as a popular Cinderella team this year. Thought it\u2019s debatable whether any team with a recent national title game berth can qualify as a Cinderella.<\/p>\n

Either way, Butler\u2019s win over Pittsburgh to reach the Sweet 16 would\u2019ve made Chris Webber proud. After Shelvin Mack\u2019s bonehead foul appeared to seal the win for Pittsburgh. Nasir Robinson returned the favor on the final shot to hand Butler the win.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs can\u2019t rely on strokes of luck like that forever, so they\u2019ll need to play better and cut down on their fouls against Wisconsin. The fourth-seeded Badgers were expected to flop among many college basketball pundits but have done just the opposite, knocking off two very popular sleeper teams: Belmont and Kansas State.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin\u2019s smothering defense, which ranks fourth in the country, will put Mack and the Bulldogs to the test. The Badgers are also the country\u2019s top free-throw shooting team and 33rd<\/sup> in three-point percentage. They\u2019re an outstanding 21 for 42 (50 per cent) from beyond the arc over their first two games of the NCAA Tournament. Jordan Taylor in particular has been an assassin, nailing seven of those 21 treys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sweet 16 college basketball betting preview rages on with the two late games on Thursday, courtesy of your favorite sports betting blog. (5) Arizona Wildcats vs (1) Duke Blue Devils Thursday, March 24, 9:45 p.m. ET Sportsbook favorite: Duke -8.5 Duke is over the big scare it got from Michigan in the round of … Continue reading Sweet 16 2011: Who Makes the Elite 8 Preview<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports_betting_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10821"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10823,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10821\/revisions\/10823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}