{"id":3896,"date":"2009-03-19T09:53:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-19T14:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/03\/free-pick-march-madness-portland-state-xavier\/"},"modified":"2009-03-19T09:53:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-19T14:53:00","slug":"free-pick-march-madness-portland-state-xavier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/03\/free-pick-march-madness-portland-state-xavier\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Pick March Madness: Portland State-Xavier"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=Section1>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>You know the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/\" title=\"March Madness betting\" id=drw1>March Madness betting<\/a> craze is in full swing when we&#8217;re already talking about Friday games, but that&#8217;s the case. On paper, the Xavier <span class=SpellE>vs<\/span> <\/span><\/font><st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Portland<\/st1:PlaceName>  <st1:PlaceType>State<\/st1:PlaceType><\/st1:place> odds look like a pretty <span class=SpellE><span class=GramE>intriguingmatchup<\/span><\/span><span class=GramE> ;<\/span> because of Xavier&#8217;s size, opponents have to shoot well to beat them, and <st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Portland<\/st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType>State<\/st1:PlaceType><\/st1:place> can shoot. But online betting fans shouldn&#8217;t get carried away in this one.<\/p>\n<p> Finishing 25-7, Xavier is one of those teams that isn&#8217;t mentioned in the same breath as the top contenders but still has multiple <a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/sportsbook\/default.aspx\" title=sportsbook id=yg7g>sportsbook<\/a> followers who see them as undervalued. It&#8217;s hard to argue against that assertion; the Musketeers are one of the biggest teams in March Madness betting, with all of their starters over 6&#8217;5&#8243;. That <span class=SpellE>createsmatchup<\/span> nightmares on both sides of the court for their competition, particularly on the boards; Xavier ranked near the top of the country in rebounding margin. The Musketeers also have size\u2014<i><span style='font-style:italic'>big <\/span><\/i>size\u2014on the bench with two seven-footers, so their rebounding prowess runs deep. Their main weakness is a lack of true ball-moving ability.<\/p>\n<p> There&#8217;s no doubt that <st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Portland<\/st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType>State<\/st1:PlaceType><\/st1:place> can score. The Vikings had three <span class=GramE>players<\/span> average double figures this season and six players shoot 35 per cent or better from three-point range, meaning pretty much everyone on the team is at least a moderate threat from downtown. To have a chance in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/\" title=\"March Madness betting\" id=\"v:gu\">March Madness betting<\/a> , they&#8217;ll have to catch fire from the perimeter.<\/p>\n<p> While a <st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Portland<\/st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType>State<\/st1:PlaceType><\/st1:place> upset would be fun to see, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/\" title=\"online betting\" id=bwnw>online betting<\/a> fans can&#8217;t help but see them as a &#8220;happy to be there&#8221; team. Their rebounding isn&#8217;t anywhere near what it needs to be for the Vikings to contend in March Madness betting. Expect them to hold their own against Xavier\u2014if their shooting doesn&#8217;t go cold\u2014and still lose in the end. Bet on Xavier to advance.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For all the top sports handicapper spread picks, <b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><font color=blue><span style='color:blue; font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><a href=\"http:\/\/www.offshoreinsiders.com\/\">OffshoreInsiders.com<\/a><\/span><\/font><\/b> is a no-brainer. <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><a\nhref=\"http:\/\/www.offshoreinsiders.com\/\"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>OffshoreInsiders.com<\/b><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You know the March Madness betting craze is in full swing when we&#8217;re already talking about Friday games, but that&#8217;s the case. On paper, the Xavier vs Portland State odds look like a pretty intriguingmatchup ; because of Xavier&#8217;s size, opponents have to shoot well to beat them, and Portland State can shoot. But online &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/03\/free-pick-march-madness-portland-state-xavier\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Free Pick March Madness: Portland State-Xavier<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896","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=3896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}