Kentucky Seeks Win Against Florida, Villanova Looks for Revenge Against Creighton

On Friday, No. 2 Arizona vs. Arizona State started out a full weekend of good NCAA hoops games. In double overtime, the Sun Devils shocked their in-state rivals with a 69-66 win. This was one of the program’s biggest home wins in history and the team’s first victory over a ranked Wildcat team since Feb. 20, 2002.

Previously, Arizona State had lost 13 consecutive games against a ranked Arizona team.

The Wildcats sit at 15/2 to win the 2014 NCAA Basketball Championship.

So what’s on tap for the rest of the weekend?

Casey Prather

THE game may be No. 14 Kentucky (19-5, 9-2) at No. 3 Florida (22-2, 11-0) on Saturday (9:00 p.m.ET). Florida is a legitimate and strong defensive team and has won 16 straight games. This includes a 7-2 record versus the BPI’s top 50 along with wins against Memphis and Kansas but a loss to Connecticut.

Playing in the SEC hasn’t provided a lot competition for Florida in the last month so Saturday’s game against Kentucky should offer some great competition for this versatile team.

They Wildcats will bring an advantage on offensive rebounding 43.2 percent (versus Florida’s 37.5 percent) and free throws at 54.8 percent (versus Florida’s 45.5 percent), according to ESPN  stats but they’ll need to leave some of their conference loss baggage behind which has included Arkansas and LSU. They sit in the SEC’s second spot behind Florida and to win the conference title, they’ll need this win.

Kentucky coach John Calapari said of the game via the Associated Press, “This game will tell us where we are. I would imagine they (the Gators) are coming in not to just win, they want to smash. We’re going to find out. There have been games where the other team came in excited and we weren’t able to withstand the beginning of the game and got down so far early that even though the rest of the game we won, we didn’t win by enough. …”

On Saturday, Kentucky will get the win (-2.5, 131 o/u).

The other big game of the weekend is No. 6 Villanova (22-2, 10-1) at No. 18 Creighton (20-4, 10-2)(Sunday at 5:00 p.m. ET).

For Villanova, they’ll enter the game against the one team that has served them its only conference loss: Creighton. It was quite a spanking as Creighton, on Villanova’s court, won 96-68. The Wildcats will not only be playing for revenge, they’ll also have their eyes on the Big East title.

With a win, they’ll have a two-game advantage over Creighton as the regular season winds down.

Doug McDermott

This time they’ll have to be prepared for Creighton’s Doug McDermott. He has a 25.3 points per game average and by the end of this season he will likely be in the Top 10 for scoring in Division 1 history. Through Thursday’s game, which included his 26 points against Butler, McDermott has 2,824 points, placing him at No. 15 of all time, according to ESPN stats.

Keep in mind for their last matchup, Ethan Wragge was the star with his nine 3-pointers (9-for-14). This performance hasn’t continued as Wragge has gone eight for 22 since then while his team hits 39 percent for threes.

Can the Wildcats defend McDermott on his home court? Vegas hasn’t decided yet but does give Villanova 25/1 and Creighton 33/1 odds to win the Big Dance.

Other interesting games…

• No. 20 Memphis at No. 24 Conn (-5, 140.5 o/u)(Sat. 12:00 p.m.ET): UConn got the win in their last meeting on Memphis’ home court.
• No. 25 Pitt at North Carolina (-3.5, 136.5 o/u)(Sat. 1:00 p.m ET).: Pitt needs a big win but so does North Carolina.
• Maryland at No. 8 Duke (-13.5, 149.5 o/u)(Sat. 6:00 p.m. ET): Who knows when these teams will meet again as Maryland is leaving the conference. They’ll make this a good one.
• No. 21 Wisconsin at No. 15 Michigan (Sun. 1:00 p.m. ET): Wisconsin has won three straight but Michigan won in their previous meeting.