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In what should be one of the most interesting second-round matchups in the 2015 NCAA Basketball Tournament No. 7 VCU Rams (27-9) will take on the uber-popular No. 10 Ohio State Buckeyes (23-10) out of the West bracket.
While Thad Matta will undoubtedly have his team ready, you have to believe he feels a tremendous amount of pressure to defeat a VCU team that plays in the Atlantic 10, no matter how much success the program has had in recent years. Big 10 teams cringe at the thought of losing to mid-majors in any sport, so do not think for one second this one won’t have him pulling at his hair during preparation.
Thankfully Matta has freshman All-American point guard D’Angelo Russell, which means a lot when you have a dynamic player who can take over a game on his own. Russell, a likely top 10 or even top five pick in this year’s draft, could take Ohio State deep in this tournament if he gets hot.
Meanwhile, VCU HC Shaka Smart knows he can bring his team deep into the tournament and right through big names, like Ohio St., without being intimidated whatsoever. VCU’s program has blossomed into a national name since Smart took them to the Final Four.
VCU relies heavily on scoring from swingman Treveon Graham, who scored 20 against the Dayton Flyers in the A-10 championship. Guard Melvin Johnson logged big minutes in that same game and is equally important. VCU needs him to be efficient in this one as the rest of their rotation do not present big-time scoring upside.
This one is going to be a wild one full of enough storylines and plot twists to make a daytime soap opera jealous. Despite the fact that Ohio St. typically travels five times as much as VCU, and considering the game is out west and it’s just a second-rounder, the crowd might not be as biased as you would think — thus leading to a somewhat neutral court. And in that scenario, VCU will narrowly defeat the Buckeyes in a nail biter.
Prediction: VCU 57 Ohio St. 54
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