Creighton vs Princeton
Creighton -10 +100 over Princeton

Posted at 12:30 PM EST. Odds subject to change.

Pinnacle -10 +100  BET365 -10 -105 Sportsinteraction -10 -105 888Sport -10 -105

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Streaming: TBS

Creighton -10 over Princeton

9:00 PM EST. The Tigers were a 15-point pooch to Arizona and won outright. They were a deflated 6-point pup to Missouri and won by a resounding 15 points, 78-63. Now the Tigers are taking back double-digits in the Sweet-16 round and the market is salivating. We’re not. With a full week to think about what just happened, the Tigers are very likely coming back down to earth.

Let’s not forget that this team wasn’t even supposed to make it to the main event. Jaelin Llewellyn, Ethan Wright and Drew Friberg were all full-time starters last season. With their departures, the Tigers lost nearly 40 points per game. Princeton also lost over two-thirds of its made 3-pointers from a year ago. Don’t confuse these Tigers with the back-door cutting Pete Carril teams of old. The principles remain but they don’t play super slow. The Tigers surrendered an alarming number of points to a lot of weak teams this season. When they beat Arizona, the Wildcats could not make a shot. Princeton scoring 59 on Arizona and winning is about as unlikely as stabbing a beetle on a football field while being blindfolded. If Princeton scores 59 or less on Creighton, they’ll lose by 30.

Creighton is a 6-seed. The metrics suggest the Blue Jays should be a #3 or #4 seed, for whatever that might be worth. Creighton beat both N.C. State and Baylor by nine points. KenPom has them ranked as the 12th best team in the entire country and they also played the 12th ranked Strength of Schedule (SOS) while Princeton's SOS ranked 173rd in the country. This is a Creighton team that beat Texas Tech, UConn, Arkansas, Villanova (twice), Xavier by 17 and Providence among others while losing to Texas by 5, Arizona by 2 (81-79) and Marquette by 2. Meanwhile, Princeton beat Brown and lost to Yale twice.

The Tigers caught lightning in a bottle last weekend but it’s over. It’s not even a case of the Tigers playing great and advancing, it was more a case of them getting very lucky by facing two cold shooting teams. Of course that could happen again, as any team could be cold for a day but that’s something we cannot predict. What we know for sure is that Creighton is stepping down in class from its two first opponents that they beat by nine points each. They are spotting deflated points and will probably blow these imposters away. It’s a cheap price to be spotting and we’re on it.

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Our Pick

Creighton -10 +100 (Risking 2 units - To Win: 2.00)

 

 

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San Diego St +12 -106 over UConn
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Illinois +102 over Iowa State