The Michigan Wolverines had finished their season with a lot of momentum, driving past powerful Michigan State and Purdue to win the Big Ten tournament title. That got than a #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and a lot of the experts tagged them as a real possibility to break through and get to the Final Four. Well, they are very much alive, having beaten Montana in their opener, and now, in the West regional, they will play the Houston Cougars, who got by red-hot San Diego State, in a game that begins at 9:40 PM ET at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita. If you are a VietBet customer, you can place wagers in real-time as you access what is available through Live Betting Ultra.
2018 NCAA Tournament Odds – Houston Cougars vs. Michigan Wolverines:
The Wolverines are the favorites, according to the 2018 NCAA Tournament Odds posted on this game by the folks at VietBet:
Michigan Wolverines -3
Houston Cougars +3
Over 134 points -110
Under 134 points -110
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2018 NCAA Tournament Odds – CJ’s Take on Houston vs Michigan in Round 2:
Michigan really turned on the defense in their 61-47 victory over Montana, holding the Grizzlies just 32% shooting. This might be the best defensive group John Beilein has ever had in Ann Arbor, and the numbers bear that out; Michigan’s defense is ranked third in the nation in Adjusted Efficiency, according to the metrics produced by KenPom, and this comes despite the fact that they don’t rank in the top 50 nationwide defending either two-pointers or three-pointers.But what they do is control the pace, and they do a tremendous job at it, as their opponents take an average of 18.1 seconds to get off a shot.
Houston had a barn burner against San Diego State, escaping with a 67-65 win. And this one was all about Rob Gray, who was the leading scorer in the American Athletic Conference last season and exploded for 39 points. He made twelve of his team’s 22 field goals and four of their five triples. The Cougars are now 27-7 straight-up (18-12 ATS). Michigan comes into this game with a record of 29-7 straight-up and 23-12 against the points.
Houston, which has lost a heart-breaker by one point to Cincinnati in the AAC championship game, has experience on the coaching lines. Kelvin Sampson has led three previous schools into the NCAA Tournament – Washington State, Oklahoma and Indiana. He has a very focused defensive team, and boy do they over a lot of resistance in the mid-range area, yielding just 43.8% accuracy in two-pointers. You can’t underestimate this team on the boards, either; they are, in fact, 17th in the nation in Offensive Rebounding percentage.
But because the Cougars don’t bring a lot of height to the table, Michigan, as they set themselves up in the halfcourt, may look to challenge the in the paint with 6-11 Mo Wagner (pronounced Vogner), who has tallied 14.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per contest. That would be a “strength vs. strength” matchup, for sure.
The Maize and Blue are on a nine-game winning streak, and as this tournament progresses, it will probably turn out to be to their benefit that they had a span of eleven days since their last game in the Big Ten tourney, which took place one week earlier than usual because that’s when the conference could book Madison Square Garden. This is one team that knows how to take care of the ball (second-best turnover frequency) and that is one way they hope to take care of business.
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