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Carrie Stroup here with your St. Louis-Memphis line for the 2012 NCAA Basketball Tournament betting. You can get all the updated NCAA Tournament odds at Sportsbook.com and be sure to claim up to $250 in FREE CASH based on an initial deposit. Let’s get started….
Sportsbook.com Line: Memphis -4
Opening Line: Tigers -3.5
Two teams playing in mid-major conferences meet in a Second Round showdown when Memphis takes on Saint Louis on Friday night.
Since getting upset at home by UTEP, the Tigers have been dominant, winning each of seven straight games (SU and ATS) by at least a dozen points. Memphis coasted through the Conference-USA Tournament with wins by 18, 31 and 26 points in the championship game over Marshall. Saint Louis has also played great basketball since the start of February, going 9-2 SU, but its 5-4-2 ATS mark shows that the games have been relatively close. The Billikens will try to slow the pace down to try to contain the talented Tigers, but it’s not happening.
Saint Louis was simply outplayed by Xavier in the A-10 semifinals (71-64 loss), getting outshot 53% to 41% and getting outrebounded by six. Despite the small amount of points, six Saint Louis players comprised the entire scoring, as each of these half-dozen players scored 8+ points. The Billikens usually employ an eight-man rotation with leading scorer Brian Conklin (13.9 PPG, 4.8 RPG) taking high-percentage shots (53.3% FG). Kwamain Mitchell (12.1 PPG, 3.8 APG) is the floor leader and Cody Ellis (10.5 PPG) makes 40% of his three-point tries. Saint Louis is not a great rebounding team, as its 32.8 RPG ranks 258th in the nation.
Memphis has a slew of athletes that can run the floor, and its 49.4% FG Pct. (5th in the nation) is the result of a lot of fast breaks and dunks. Will Barton is a monster at 18.1 PPG and 8.1 RPG and Joe Jackson (11.1 PPG) is coming off a strong C-USA Tournament with 15.3 PPG and 4.0 APG in the three wins. He had a game-high 19 in the championship win over Marshall, while Barton had 18. Senior swingman Wesley Witherspoon (7.2 PPG) provides a great spark off the bench, and highly-recruited sophomore F Tarik Black (10.9 PPG, 4.9 RPG) is starting to blossom with 8+ points in each of his past 10 games (13.9 PPG).
- Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter
