Spread & Over/Under Predictions for WVU vs. Louisville

It’s day two in the Battle 4 Atlantis and we’ve got a surprising matchup in the winner’s bracket with West Virginia set to face Louisville.

The Mountaineers took down No. 3 Gonzaga in overtime in the opening round while the Cardinals pounded No. 14 Indiana to start the event.

Here are my picks for today’s game. Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.

1 Star – Not very confident
2 Star – A little confident
3 Star – Fairly confident
4 Star – Very confident
5 Star – Should be a lock to happen

2-star play on Louisville (-1.5): As thrilling as Wednesday’s win was for West Virginia, the odds are stacked against them here in this matchup, but not from a talent standpoint. They have the horses to be able to hang in there and potentially even win this game, but they had to exert a ton of energy to knock off Gonzaga in overtime.

Meanwhile, the Cards beat No. 14 Indiana by 38 in a game that was pretty much decided early on in the second half. Because they were able to get out to such a comfortable lead, they were able to rest their starters. Couple that with West Virginia playing an exhausting game with essentially a 7 or 8-man rotation, and you’d have to figure that the Mountaineers are at a slight disadvantage.

Put it this way: if these two squared off in the opening round, I’d tend to lean toward West Virginia. That being said, I’m not completely counting this Mountaineer squad out, especially after last night.

2-star play on the under: Playing on consecutive days can lead to high-scoring games because teams have tired legs, and that fatigue shows on defense or those tired legs show on the offensive end of the floor, resulting in a low-scoring affair. I’m going to go with the ladder here, partially because West Virginia is going to have to play stingy defense to win this game.

The Cardinals do a pretty good job of pushing the pace and scoring in the fastbreak, and playing in an up-and-down style of game just doesn’t seem ideal for the Mountaineers after yesterday. You could tell West Virginia began to lose some energy in the final few minutes in regulation by really slowing things down offensively. I expect that we’ll see a similar approach today, given the short turnaround. Darian DeVries probably doesn’t want this to be a game that’s settled in the 80s or 90s.

ATS: 2-3 (40%)
O/U: 3-2 (60%)
Overall: 5-5 (50%)

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