By Charles Jay
High-Scoring Buddy Hield Hopes to Lead Oklahoma to Final Four
The Oklahoma Sooners hope that the nation’s most explosive offensive performer can help lead them to the Final Four, and they will have to get through the West Region’s #1 seed – the Oregon Ducks – to do that.
The Oklahoma Sooners have been one of those “must-see” teams this season, and one of the major reasons for that is a player who is perhaps the most dangerous on offense in the entire nation. But there is the interesting thing about it – he was held in relative check in their Elite Eight matchup, yet the Sooners showed they can charge forward without him, well, setting off. On Saturday night the Sooners will try to advance to the Final Four as they tackle the Oregon Ducks in NCAA Tournament action that begins at 6:05 PM ET at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Remember that if you are a Vietbet patron, you will have the opportunity to continue engaging in the action even after the opening tip-off, as they get to challenge the basketball odds in real time through the facilities of Live Betting Extra.
Join Vietbet NOW for March NCAA Tournament Online Betting and receive a 30% Initial Deposit Bonus!
March Madness – Elite 8 Betting Line from Vietbet:
The odds are up and available online at Vietbet and the Sooners are the underdogs in what is a near pick’em situation:
Oregon Ducks -1
Oklahoma Sooners +1
Over 152 points -110
Under 152 points -110
This year’s Sooners are now 28-7 straight-up and 13-20 against the basketball point spread after a rather impressive effort in defeating Texas A&M on Thursday night. In the 77-63 final, Buddy Hield, who came into the game with a 25.4-point average and had hung up 29 against VCU in the SECOND HALF of the previous contest, was held to 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting. But he also contributed ten rebounds and handed out three assists (okay, he turned it over five times, but nobody’s perfect).
And some of the scoring slack was picked up by another member of the backcourt – Jordan Woodard, who pumped in 22 points. That is the thing about Oklahoma – they may not get huge numbers out of the other people in the backcourt, but they can rise to the occasion if they are absolutely required. After all, Woodard (12.8 ppg) and Isaiah Cousins (13.1 ppg) both carry double-digit averages.
It should be mentioned that Oklahoma also played some pretty good defense on Thursday, or benefited from poor shooting on the part of Texas A&M – whichever way you want to look at it. The Aggies hit just 34% from the field and did little business from beyond the arc (6 of 21). Their lack of production from Danuel House was a definite factor.
Now let’s get back to Hield, who is originally from the Bahamas. he has topped 30 points ten times, including the 36 points against VCU in the Round of 32. he has a season high of 46 points against Kansas, at the Allen Fieldhouse, in a triple-overtime Oklahoma defeat that took place on January 4.
Vietbet customers have seen that some teams have denied him the ball with some success. The most vivid case of this is West Virginia, which held him to one-for-eight from the field in the Big 12 Tournament. And even then, Oklahoma only went down to a two-point defeat to the Mountaineers, who at that point were ranked ninth in the country. In that game, the Sooners got 15 from Cousins, along with 13 off the bench out of freshman guard Christian James. And they held Bob Huggins team to 38% shooting.
Oklahoma has been notoriously bad against the spread; they had dropped seven straight to the number before beating A&M, and after starting out covering six of the first seven that were posted on the board, they have gone 7-19 ATS since.
Vietbet helps you out in your battle against the basketball odds, as reduced juice helps you avoid laying the usual -110 when you play……Also don’t forget that you can use Bitcoin to deposit, along with your Visa card and person-to-person transfers……..And the payouts are about the fastest in the business!