NCAA Basketball: Players to Watch in the West Bracket
by Mike Rose
The West Bracket is set up to have a number of eye popping upsets occur throughout the first couple rounds. Here’s a list of players you just might find making a ton of noise for their respecit6ive teams in this NCAA basketball betting tournament.
Jimmer Fredette (BYU Cougars) : Fredette was arguably the most valuable player in any conference tournament last week. He finished his two Mountain West Tournament games for the Cougs with a whopping 75 points scored. This slasher knows how to get into the paint, and of late, he's been heading to the charity stripe quite a bit. In those two MWC games, Fredette shot a whopping 35 for 36 from the foul line. If Brigham Young is going to get out of this first weekend of the dance and succeed in its first two betting battles, Fredette is going to be the man that has to take over for the Cougs.
Marqus Blakely (Vermont Catamounts) : Any time you have a player that can go for 24 and 18 in a league final, you have to take note. Blakely is the man that will need to come through for the Catamounts if they're going to upset Syracuse on Friday. He's going to be one of the premier players on the court at all times, as he is averaging 17.4 points, 9.1 boards, 3.7 assists, 2.6 steals, and 1.9 blocks per game, making him a true do-it-all player.
Jacob Pullen (Kansas State Wildcats) : The Cats nearly clawed their way all the way up to the #1 line in March Madness, but this is a team that just hasn't figured out how to beat the in-state rival Jayhawks. Pullen has largely been hit and miss most of the year, but at 18.9 points per game, the kid can just flat out score. If KSU is going to survive deep into this tournament, it is going to need its leading scorer to step up and do some real damage, just like he did in a 26 point showing against Baylor in the Big XII betting Semifinals.
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Randy Culpepper (UTEP Miners) : Culpepper scored 20+ points in his final two Conference USA Tournament games, but the Miners still had to sweat out their spot in the field of 65 until Selection Sunday. This is a man that has already gone off for 45 points this season, and he'll be called upon to have another similar effort come if UTEP is going to take Butler out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round come Thursday afternoon.
Matt Bouldin (Gonzaga Bulldogs) : It's been awhile since Bouldin has really had a great game for the Zags, but he's going to have to come up big if his team is going to bounce Florida State out of the tournament. Getting into the paint is going to be difficult against all of FSU's bigs, but Bouldin, much like Fredette for BYU, is going to need to figure it out.
Jordan Crawford (Xavier Musketeers) : Many probably don't realize that the X-Men had the tenth best offense in the country this year, but as long as they don't run into a defensive juggernaut, they should be in great shape. Crawford scored 19.7 points per game this year to lead the Musketeers, and it's going to take a nice game from him to stop a hungry Minnesota defense that was red hot before running into Ohio State at the end of the Big Ten Tournament.
