Nova Report
It?s the Final Four in New Orleans🥳. The Wildcats take on the Kansas Jayhawks at 6:09 pm eastern. Kansas is -4.5/132.5. Everyone knows that Nova lost its second best player to a torn Achilles with seconds left in their last game. It hurts for sure. Losing 14+ points per game, your second best defender and a guy who plays 36+ minutes a game for a team with little depth is rough. They likely would have moved on to the Championship with him in the lineup.
Nonetheless, Coach Wright and his staff will have devised a solid gameplan vs Kansas. Can the depleted Cats execute it? Over on the Kansas side, they play lockdown defense and prefer an up tempo game. Agbaji is a 6?5? guard, Conference player of the year and headed to the NBA. He averages 19 a game and hits 39% from 3. McCormack is a 6?10? forward who lives inside the paint for short shots and rebounds (10 points pg, 7 boards). Braun, a 6?6?, guard can hit from deep and likes to push the ball offensively. However, it?s sixth man Remy Martin that is the real key to this team. He can shoot from anywhere, drive the floor, set his teammates up with easy shots and defend. He needs to be controlled for Nova to win.
For the Wildcats, Caleb Daniels, a New Orleans native will start in place of Justin Moore. He?ll be fine. If all 5 starters could play 40 minutes, the matchups aren?t terrible. Obviously, that?s not possible so the combination of Antoine and Arcidiacono will have to play beyond what we?ve seen so far this year. Gillespie will need to go for 20 plus points. Slater will need to lock down Agbaji and ?Big Game? Jermaine Samuels will need to continue on his incredible scoring run. Eric Dixon will need to defend McCormack and stay out of foul trouble. Can they do this?
What Will Happen: undoubtedly Nova will slow the pace down to a crawl. They will focus their defense on Martin and Agbaji. Their offense may consist of even more 3?s than usual. For Kansas, they?ll push the pace and drive the ball inside to try to foul out anyone they can. Defensively, they?ll extend the perimeter to guard the 3?s. That will open up chances for Dixon and Samuels. Kansas shot lights out in the second half vs Miami last game. They will revert back to the mean in the first half. Nova hasn?t shot well all tournament and probably won?t improve much today. Look for a low scoring game. It should be a close one with both teams having a few runs.
My Pick: Nova+4.5. Gillespie will put this team on his back and their free throw shooting will keep them close!
My Nova Pick Record: 16-20-1
GO WILDCATS