Arkansas vs. UConn Expert Pick March 23 2023. Adama Sanogo looks to propel the Huskies past Arkansas in this Sweet Sixteen matchup. Photo credit: Ian Bethune/The UConn Blog
Arkansas vs. UConn Expert Pick - March 23, 2023
ARKANSAS VS. UCONN EXPERT NCAA TOURNAMENT PICK -- MARCH 23, 2023 - Welcome to my love letter to college basketball, and more specifically, UConn basketball.
I'm holding a 15/1 ticket on the Huskies to cut down the nets, so I'm on them until the wheels fall off. It's March and I could not be more jacked to see Dan Hurley pacing the sidelines for a team that looks poised to continue its deep run through the tournament.
This is going to be a fun, but winnable matchup as they take on Eric Musselman's Arkansas Razorbacks. Let's dig into this matchup a little bit more so that I can talk you through all of the reasons that I love UConn in this spot.
The Odds
Matchup
Open
Spread
Points
Moneyline
Arkansas
(20-13 SU)
+4
+4.5
O140.5
+160
UConn
(25-8 SU)
U139.5
-4.5
U140.5
-190
Tipoff
When: Thursday, March 23, 2023 at 7:15 EST
Where: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV
TV: CBS
Public Bets: UConn, 70%
Public Money:Â UConn, 77%
Odds courtesy of DraftKings, as of March 23rd, 2023
Arkansas vs. UConn Analysis
Time to get off the Muss Bus
This is basically the perfect confluence of degeneracy, pettiness, and pure adrenaline for me.
We'll start with the degeneracy: I love the Huskies. I've thought they were excellent all year. So much so that I placed a wager on them to take down the whole damn thing about a month ago. They constitute one half of my futures bets for this tournament. The other is Creighton (that love letter will be posted tomorrow). The Huskies present a lot of problems for the Razorbacks and should be able to limit the one-dimensional offense of Arkansas that relies heavily on scoring points in the paint. Adama and Donovan Clingan should be able to make things difficult for Arkansas down low. If Arkansas starts firing up threes, it's going to be a long night for the Hogs' faithful because this team flat-out sucks at shooting where they are 317th in 3-point percentage and 266th from the charity stripe.
Pettiness: I'm still angry that Musselman left a blossoming mid-major powerhouse at Nevada to take this job and continue winning while Nevada is mired in mediocrity. I am thankful for the wins he provided for Wolf Pack fans, but I'm still not ready to forgive him for abandoning us immediately after ascending to our greatest heights as a program.
It hurts me to watch this man win everywhere he goes that isn't Reno, Nevada.
Pure adrenaline: What else can you say? This is what March Madness is all about. This is a high-level matchup that will be contested by two excellent coaches. By the end of this weekend, there's a very real chance that the Huskies can be making another trip to the Final Four. I am absolutely locked into every moment of this tournament and have been since it started. We will rest when it's over.
Arkansas vs. UConn Betting Trends
At Arkansas, Musselman is 5-3 straight up and ATS as an underdog, so we're fading a dangerous 'dog here. But I will go down on this ship shouting about this being a terrible matchup for the Razorbacks right up until the final whistle blows.
On the other side, Hurley is 6-2 in Tourney games. Additionally the Big East is a ludicrous 7-2 straight up and 6-3 ATS.
There are multiple ways to looks at this from a trends perspective, but there are arguments to be made on both sides that are equally compelling from these vantage points. Thus, we ride with our more in-depth analysis here.
The Pick
It was always going to be UConn for me here.
UConn brings a better offense to this contest and are simply a more balanced team. The problem for Arkansas is that they have limited ways to generate offense and that should hamper their ability to win against a team that can match up with them defensively.
This UConn team is physical, nasty, and play excellent defense.
Look for them to stifle the Arkansas offense and it will be enough to get a win here.
Arkansas will likely commit a bunch of dumb fouls that will decide how the spread goes. I like the Huskies to knock down enough free throws to cover one here and move on the the Elite Eight.
Good luck stopping this team if you're Arkansas. They're gonna need all the help they can get.
February 25, 2023: Nahiem Alleyne (@Nahiem10) connects with Donovan Clingan (@clingan_donovan) on this wrap around pass for the dunk in a win versus St. John's at Madison Square Garden pic.twitter.com/GmkDf5DdZR
Nate Perry is a career college educator and literary writer who tends bar to get the inside scoop on sports. He makes his living in hardscrabble downtown Reno, Nevada. A sports handicapper by trade, Nate is legendary at the sportsbook in Reno. If you can gamble on it, chances are Nate has tried his hand at it. He's a former fiction writer who has turned to writing about sports in a desperate bid to get published, much to the chagrin of nearly everyone around him. He is featured here with his extremely large dog, Boatswain.
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