Odds To Win The 2009 NCAA Tournament: Louisville Cardinals
The Louisville Cardinals won the Big East regular season title and the Big East Conference Tournament championship. Now the No. 1 seed Cardinals set out to win the one that really counts. Louisville made a nice run in the Big Dance last season before getting knocked out by North Carolina in the Elite Eight. Can the Cardinals get over the hump and into the Final Four, and even win the whole thing? Jimmy Boyd gives you his take on the Cards in this article. The Louisville Cardinals are listed at +500 to win the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
Morehead State won the play in game to earn the right to get killed by Louisville in round one. The Cards actually faced Morehead State in the first game of the season and buried the Eagles 79-41. Having already faced Louisville, one would expect the Eagles to hang a little tougher this time around, but odds makers have listed Louisville as the 21-point favorite.
I’m not going to beat around the bush. When Louisville is on, it is on, but when it isn’t hitting its shots or creating turnovers, it is susceptible to being upset. In other words, this Louisville team is not as balanced as the other No. 1 seeds in the tournament and that could spell trouble at some point. Last year, it was the Elite Eight when North Carolina’s balance was too much.
The Cardinals are led by Terrence Williams and Earl Clark. I personally felt Williams deserved some consideration for Big East Player of the Year, especially since the Cards won the league. He averaged 12.3 points per game this season and led the team with 5.1 assists per contest, and also hauled in over 8 boards per game. The guy can flat out do it all and he’s explosive. Earl Clark leads the team in scoring at 14.0 points per game and Samardo Samuels gets 11.9 points per contest. This Louisville team is not as good of a three-point shooting team as Pitino has had in the past and that causes them to go into scoring droughts on occasion when they continue to let them fly from the outside.
Louisville gets Ohio State or Siena in round two and I’m not confident in the ability of either of those teams to handle the pressure well enough to win. The Cards could see a number of teams in the Sweet 16. I have picked No. 12 seed Arizona to pull off a couple upsets to get there. If that is the case, Arizona is good enough offensively to hang around, but ultimately won’t be able to come up with enough stops defensively. In the Elite Eight, I have the Cardinals meeting Michigan State in a matchup of heavyweight coaches. I anticipate nothing less than a down to the wire finish, but I give the Spartans the edge because of their ability to take care of the basketball and beat the Louisville press for points.
I’ve been wrong before and I’ll be wrong again so if you like Louisville to cut down the nets, you may want to make a futures wager on the Cards to win it all. Do your college basketball betting on my NCAA basketball picks for the most winners against the college basketball lines this March.
