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The first two games of the Elite 8 round are set, and one Cinderella is still dancing.
The glass slippers are on the 9-seed Iowa Hawkeyes, but it's going to take a ballroom miracle to beat the Fighting Illini.
The biggest Cinderella of the tournament, Texas, promised a payout in the six figures if they were to win the championship. Purdue just narrowly got by the feisty Longhorns.
We've got 1 vs. 2 as Arizona and Purdue will go head-to-head in a battle of powerhouses out West.
BetOnline.ag quickly posted the spread for both games, and you can find the opening numbers and current numbers below.
Iowa +7
Illinois -7
Over/Under 139
(Spread opened Illinois -6)
Purdue +5.5
Arizona -5.5
Over/Under 152.5
(Spread opened Arizona -3.5)
Illinois Fighting Illini in the Elite Eight
Illinois just happened to be our value Play of the Day Thursday and it was like taking candy from a baby.
We told you how Houston was seeing greater than 90% of the money, yet oddsmakers were taking this number downwardt. Bovada dropping from Houston -3 to -2 pretty much told us everything we needed to know.
David Mirkovic had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and third-seeded Illinois flexed its defensive muscles to eliminate last year's national runner-up from the NCAA Tournament, beating Houston 65-55 in the South Region semifinals on Thursday night.
Arizona Wildcats in the Elite Eight
Brayden Burries scored 21 points and fellow freshman Koa Peat added 21 as part of a record-setting balanced attack that sent top-seeded Arizona to a 109-88 win over Arkansas on Thursday night to reach the Elite Eight for the first time since 2015.
“This is the most fun I’ve had playing basketball, honestly,” Peat said. “I love my teammates. Just seeing them be successful, it just makes me happy. Then they find me as well. So we went out there and played our Arizona brand of basketball. I thought everything fell in place, and I thought the whole team played really good today and a lot of guys stepped up.”
Purdue in the Elite Eight
Tre Kaufman-Renn tipped in a miss by Braden Smith with 0.7 seconds left, and the No. 2-seed Boilermakers edged hobbling Texas star Tramon Mark and the 11th-seeded Longhorns 79-77 on Thursday night in the Sweet 16.
Kaufman-Renn hit his first seven shots — going 6 for 6 and grabbing five rebounds in the first half — on the way to 20 points. He was mobbed by teammates right after the final buzzer sounded at SAP Center.
Iowa in the Elite Eight
Alvaro Folgueiras converted a critical three-point play when Nebraska only had four defenders on the floor, and ninth-seeded Iowa continued its unpredictable NCAA Tournament run under first-year coach Ben McCollum, beating Nebraska 77-71 in a South Region semifinal on Thursday night.
Bennett Stirtz scored 20 points and Folgueiras had 16 for the Hawkeyes (24-12), who knocked off top-seeded Florida in the second round on Folgueiras' 3-pointer in the closing seconds.
- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com
