2008 ncca tournament bracket
2008 ncca tournament schedule
NCAA tournament bracket
One of the best first-round matchups in the NCAA Tournament takes place Thursday afternoon in Anaheim when South Region No. 6 seed Marquette (24-9) takes on No. 11 Kentucky (18-12), with the Golden Eagles 6-point betting favorites on WagerWeb.com.
The Wildcats didn't appear to be tournament-worthy early in the year, as they were 7-9 after back-to- ack road losses to Mississippi State and Florida before closing the season by winning 11 of their final 14 games.
The Cats had to adjust to a new coach – Billy Gillispie, who replaced Tubby Smith -- and battle through injuries to a range of players, including stars Joe Crawford, Ramel Bradley and Patrick Patterson.
Patterson's loss was the big one. The SEC Freshman of the Year was lost for the season with a stress fracture in his left foot. The 6-foot-8 forward averaged 16.4 points and 7.7 rebounds. Without Patterson, the Wildcats don't have much size in the paint and will rely heavily on senior guards Bradley and Crawford, who combined to average 32.2 points per game.
Meanwhile, UK's Jodie Meeks will try to return to practice this week after missing the past seven games with a hip injury, but his status for the Marquette game remains uncertain.
Meeks, a 6-foot-4 guard, hasn't played since a win at LSU on Feb. 16. He has missed 19 games with groin and hip injuries this season.
In 11 games, Meeks is averaging 8.8 points and 23.2 minutes.
UK, which lost in the SEC quarterfinals, views the tournament as a beginning to a new season.
"I think we have a fresh start again, everybody is 0-0 again and we can go out there and shake things up," Crawford said. "At one point in the season, everybody gave up on us having a chance to even be in the tournament," he added. "So to fight back all this way and play so well in the SEC, it's been one of my most rewarding years."
Despite Kentucky's seed, Marquette coach Tom Crean said his team can ill afford to overlook the Wildcats, especially at this time of year."There's never anything that is remotely comfortable or easy when you get to this time of the year. Everything's a challenge," Crean said. "Certainly Kentucky will be that way. They play incredibly hard. They are great competitors. Their coach is outstanding and they've had an outstanding year."
Kentucky shoots 46.9 percent from the field, including 36.8 percent on 3-pointers.
The Golden Eagles, who have won six of their last eight games, are led by junior guard Jerel McNeal, who averages 14.3 points a game. Junior guard Dominic James, sophomore forward Lazar Hayward and junior guard Wesley Matthews all average more than 11 points per game.
James will need to bounce back from a 3-for-16 shooting performance in the Big East Tournament semifinal loss to Pitt.
Increased production from Hayward helped Marquette boost its plus-2.4 regular-season rebounding advantage to plus-13.4 in the Big East Tournament. That could be key as UK is without its leading rebounder in Patterson.
"It's going to be a great matchup. They're a tough team," James said. "We know that we put ourselves in a position to get a good seed. I feel like we definitely know where we are as a team. We know our roles and we know what we're supposed to be doing, especially this time of year."
The Wildcats have met Marquette nine times in the tournament with the Golden Eagles winning five times, including an 83-69 upset of the top-seeded Wildcats in 2003 behind a triple-double from Dwyane Wade.
Prediction: UK should cover but is too perimeter-oriented to beat Marquette.
No comments:
Post a Comment