Arizona Wildcats heavy favorites against Ohio State Buckeyes

One of the best games of the 2015 NCAA Tournament so far took place on Thursday with the Ohio State Buckeyes (10) coming out on top against the VCU Rams (7). VCU has been as tough to beat as any team in the tourney over the past few years with Shaka Smart making the school a force to be reckoned with in college basketball, but Smart’s squad couldn’t top Thad Mata and company in overtime.

The competition only gets tougher for the Buckeyes heading into the next round. Ohio State will go head-to-head against the Arizona Wildcats (2) and are currently considered the underdogs for the Saturday showdown.

According to Bovada, the Wildcats are heavy favorites at -9. Arizona made easy work of the Texas Southern Tigers (15) on Thursday. The Wildcats crushed the Tigers in a 21-point rout and will hope to do the same against the Buckeyes.

Although the Wildcats are the heavy favorites right now, Arizona will have to contend with one of the best guards in the country. Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell is coming off an impressive performance against VCU in which he scored a game-high 28 points and led the team to victory in overtime.

Russell may be one of the best guards in the country and bound for the 2015 NBA draft this summer, but Arizona has the depth that might prove to be too much to handle for Ohio State. The frontcourt for the Wildcats will be the Buckeyes’ toughest challenge with Stanley Johnson, Rondae Hollis-Johnson and Kaleb Tarczewski.

It’ll be interesting to see how things pan out with the winner advancing to the Sweet 16. The Wildcats may be the deeper team with a stacked frontcourt, but Russell has the ability to take games over and may prove to be a tough matchup for Arizona. The game could easily go either way.