#4 Arizona vs. #13 Akron NCAA Showdown: High Stakes & Strategy

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00:00Also a 4-13 matchup, Arizona and Akron. The Zips the champions of the MAAC, Arizona a team of the

00:06odds makers in the net ratings and the analytics believe a lot more in than I do. 14 and a half

00:14point spread total for a 4-13 game. 1-66 and a half. Both teams want to play fast and both teams

00:21can score. DRS, how competitive and high scoring is this matchup today between the Cats and the Zips?

00:27It's like the upside on Arizona is tremendous but so many times so many of these past years we've

00:33seen that really talented Arizona team crash and burn once they got into the NCAA tournament but

00:38also we're not talking about who's going to win this game. An unbelievable shock is if Akron wins

00:44this game it advances against Arizona but the question mark is getting close to 15 points right

00:49now. I just told you the previous game with Grand Canyon, hey you know it's a solid basketball team

00:53but I need you to shoot that three-point shot and I need you to play with some pace here. Well

00:57you're going to get that with Akron, you're going to get pace, you're going to get a good offense

01:00and you're going to get a team that shoots 37 percent from three-point range as a team and

01:05launches 45 percent of their total shots from three-point range. You take a look at Arizona's

01:11defense they don't foul. Well good thing is Akron doesn't give a damn Ben about getting to the free

01:15throw line. So for me in this game I think a viable option would be Akron. Now understand this

01:20there's two ways to play these type of games. You have these big spreads because do you think

01:24that Akron throughout the entirety of the game Ben can knock down three-point shot after three-point

01:29shot after three-point shot? Probably not. There's usually an instance where you go cold. Having said

01:34that if Akron can come out of the gates and shoot let's just say in the first half 45 plus percent

01:40from three-point range they'll be covering from the half. So as a dog player in this one I don't

01:45necessarily because I think Arizona can just wear out Akron by the end of the game but it's just

01:49the way it is. But you can get those glimpses which we saw yesterday from some of these teams

01:53looking for upset bids. Just play well in the first half. We'll let the chips fall in the second half.

01:57Maybe Akron first half makes a little bit more sense to me than second half. Come out firing

02:01from three-point range. Hit those shots. Okay they open up five of seven from three-point range.

02:05You're going to get yourself a cover in the first half.