CATCH OF THE DAY: Oklahoma has best opening rounds

March 18, 2010 by Sage Sammons 

The biggest games of the weekend will come out of Oklahoma City, as BYU plays Florida and UNLV plays Northern Iowa.

As a Rebel fan, you probably weren’t too excited to see the Rebels as an 8-seed, playing a very tough 9-seed. On top of that, if they win, they play the number-one overall team in the tournament, Kansas.

But as a basketball fan, you salivate like a hungry moose at the thought of watching great basketball this weekend in Oklahoma City.

The matchups for the pods are No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 16 Lehigh and No. 8 UNLV vs. No. 9 Northern Iowa for the Midwest Region. The second pod has No. 7 BYU playing No. 10 Florida and No. 2 Kansas State playing No. 15 North Texas in the West Region.

The two Kansas games should both be laughers and the Jayhawks and Wildcats should move on easily. The other first round games are the best games to watch in the entire tournament on Thursday.

BYU has a great matchup with the Gators. Florida was able to upset Tennessee at home while BYU was able to beat UNLV, UTEP and San Diego State.

Yes, the quality wins differ, but I think the Cougars fast-paced offense will be way too much for the Gators. Guard play wins in March and the Cougars have better guards.

Florida has five players averaging double-digits in points, but they only have seven averaging double-digits in minutes. Meanwhile, the Cougars have four players averaging double-digits in points and nine in minutes.

The Cougars are a quicker team and in space they can shoot the lights out. They will easily move pat the Gators.

The next big game of the day is the UNLV Rebels facing off against the Northern Iowa Panthers.

Northern Iowa is more experienced and has bigger players, but most importantly, the hardest names to pronounce in the tournament. It looks like a roster of an eastern European hockey club.

This team is not one to be taken lightly and the Rebels know that. Nine of their players average double digits in minutes and three in points.

The Panthers won’t beat you by running you out of the gym. Their offense is very similar to the one of Air Force, but they make their shots late in the shot clock.

The Rebels will need to pressure the ball and make the Panthers take quick shots. I believe the Rebels move on because of their ability to make big runs and score points quickly. Plus, Lon Kruger is 8-3 in first round games, not to mention 2-0 at UNLV.

That will leave us with a BYU-Kansas State matchup and an UNLV-Kansas rematch from two years ago.

The Cougar-Wildcat game could be the best game of the entire tournament. Both teams have great guards who have the ability of lighting up the scoreboard.

Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente will need to shoot well like they did against UNLV in December to overtake the Cougars. I see Jimmer Fredette as more of a consistent player than both Pullen and Clemente and the Cougars will move on to the Sweet 16 in Salt Lake City.

As a homer, I want to say that the winner of the UNLV-Northern Iowa game will beat Kansas, but it is hard to go against not only the Jayhawk talent, but their experience.

They are led by Sherron Collins, who may be the best senior point guard in the NCAA this year, and junior Cole Aldrich who is averaging 11.2 points and 9.9 rebounds. Freshman Xavier Henry is playing well too.

UNLV will need to get big production from Matt Shaw and Kendall Wallace to take out the Jayhawks. Sadly, I see Kansas moving on and UNLV out, but not after a tough-fought game.