NIT

[BUNK MORELAND]

Davidson +4.5 ... 5 units

[Daws1089]

bunk em

[FlyersFan]

GL!...honestly not seeing it though which of course is just my probably misguided opinion. 11:30PM tip local body clock time for Davidson and if Mills plays the way he did the other night, STMary's is going to have too much for Davidson in the end I think. But im not playing it so hope it hits...

still think that PITT line is kind of whacky. X usually is a team that gets the most out of its games in the tourney and PITT hasn't played very well. But with that being said, if PITT finally steps up and plays a great game i could see Young and Fields being too much for X and wearing them down in the 2H. Almost worth an X 1H bet and a PITT game and 2H bet.

[BUNK MORELAND]

Originally Posted by FlyersFan

GL!...honestly not seeing it though which of course is just my probably misguided opinion. 11:30PM tip local body clock time for Davidson and if Mills plays the way he did the other night, STMary's is going to have too much for Davidson in the end I think. But im not playing it so hope it hits...

still think that PITT line is kind of whacky. X usually is a team that gets the most out of its games in the tourney and PITT hasn't played very well. But with that being said, if PITT finally steps up and plays a great game i could see Young and Fields being too much for X and wearing them down in the 2H. Almost worth an X 1H bet and a PITT game and 2H bet.

Fields is the key right now .. It used to be Blair .. If he wasn't on the floor at times it seemed they were a totally different team (blair) ...

Now it's Fields .. when he goes to the bench they lose their rythme.. Fields gets everybody lined up, in the right spots, he got YOUNG some wide open looks yesterday... 9 assists and only 2 turnovers... and chipped in scoring too ... Fields is the key right now and his play yesterday was very encouraging

Pitt won despite playing a BAD GAME on Friday and then IMO they showed they can get up and down the court with a team yesterday ( ok st ) ... OK ST WAS ON FIRE FROM 3 ball in the first half .. Pitt needs to do a better job against X defending the 3 .. i'm not so sure that X shoots the 3 ball that great .i'm wrong here , they do shoot about 40% from 3 land. I know one thing Blair is so much more active and athletic than X's bigs.. Love and FREEZE are not athletic enough in my opinion. BROWN IS .. but D BLAIR can muscle him...

Right now i'm liking this line .. .... And I think Pitt played great yesterday .. OFFENSIVELY .. Shot the ball well, Hit some three's .. Took better care of the ball too .. Now defensively they were not their normal self .. But they won, and they are here .. that is the only thing that matters to me right now ..



PITT HAS TO GET THIS sweet 16 monkey off their back . THEY HAVE TO

I like nova too ...

[FlyersFan]

well Sam Young was HUGE versus OkState the other day. I think that Fields, Young and Blair will all need to play well for them to win. But then again, that can probably be said for most teams when we get down to the round of 16, 8, 4 etc.....

[BUNK MORELAND]

If you have watched lately Blair has done a great job of staying out of foul trouble, sometimes it looks as if he is giving up baskets to stay away from fouling..

The last two games it seems it has been easy for him to stay out of foul trouble.

ETSU and OK ST were more guard/perimeter oriented teams where he could just sit back in the paint and not worry about playing against a solid offensive big guy who could back him down one on one..

I feel he will be able to stay out of foul trouble again against X ..

Against Louisville they used Samuel and Jennings in a way that made him vulnerable to foul trouble.. same with nova and cunningham ...

i don't feel Blair is vulnerable to foul trouble against X .....
with that being said , here is my prediction :

Pitt 75- Xavier 63 ....

I think Pitt's balance is the difference and the fact they have two Go to guys who can take the game over. Raymond, Anderson,Brown are great players and i really respect X ..

But Young and Blair are the best two players on the floor on thursday and throw in Fields with all that experience, i feel is just too much

NIGEL ???