Sweet Sixteen

The Sweet Sixteen is set. Villanova is not among them. Gonzaga is. Who knew? All of the number one seeds are still here.  Louisville and Duke fell from the number two seed line. Who looks good now?

Look for a team that is the higher seed to win the opening games on Thursday The ride usually end the second week when you can't sneak up on somebody.  Watch for the different styles to dictate who goes on. Who can make the other guy play at the pace they don't want to play at.


                                     The top odds to win the tournament as of this posting:
                                                 Kansas 19-4
                                                 UNC 5-1
                                                 Arizona and Gonzaga 13-2
                                                 Kentucky and UCLA 9-1

                                            Questions for #SweetSixteen


Can West Virginia speed up Gonzaga?
What matchup is better than Kentucky and UCLA?
Can the ride continue for Michigan?
Which number 1 of the remaining 3 does not make it to the #FinalFour next weekend?

The surprise of the tournament is only 1 ACC team is left in the round of 16. These are the three players that will impact games this week. All of them from the Big Ten.

Derrick Walton Jr.

Caleb Swanigan

Bronson Koenig

                                                   
                                                            #SmartResponsibleGaming
                          Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for updates!
                          Check out our app, Smart Responsible Gaming at thegamingguym.com

March Madness

The best time of the year. NCAA tournament. The number ones are Villanova, Gonzaga, Kansas and North Carolina. No dominant team in the field. Basketball all day long!  Las Vegas is the ideal place to be. But we are in two bracket pools so we have action on every game. One is the ESPN Tournament Challenge. Someone on your job or in your college is running the other.


                                                    Things to know about the tournament:

Final Four is in Phoenix Arizona
Tournament starts 3/14 and ends 4/3.
A number 12 seed will upset a 5.
In the history of the tournament, just 14 teams that were seeded lower 7th or worse have made it to the Final Four.

                                                               Players to watch:

Josh Hart and Frank Mason III

Malik Monk

Lonzo Ball

Follow me thru out the tournament and see how long our brackets last!

#SmartResponsibleGaming 

             Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for updates!
             Check out our app, Smart Responsible Gaming at thegamingguym.com

SixersTalk

We decided to look at the Sixers and the last 20 games of this season. This team has went from a low level of expectations to start the season and progress to a unit that was within striking distance of the final playoff position in the Eastern Conference. They are now spending the last 20 odd games developing players and brought in a player from the D League.

At the All Star break, the Sixers were looking at moving Jahlil Okafor. They have a quality player in him that does not fit for them defensively.They did not play him at the end of games last year and that did not change this season. He is offensively sound and will average 16-20 points with 8 boards every night.

They instead decided to move Nerlens Noel, who did fit defensively and could have played a back up role. They also moved their best outside shooter, Ersen Ilyasova and did not receive anything close in value for either player.

We left ourselves with question mark at the 5 position because of the injury to Joel Embiid. 31 games over 3 years is the reality of Joel. Is that what we want to hang our future on? While he is exceptional and likable can we count on him?

More of this!

Less of this!

Is Holmes the back up that you want to go to war with every night? He does give his all but is a center in a forward's body.

Brett Brown does have the team playing at a high level that will compete and share the ball. They press and make strong defensive rotations. The Sixers should build their team by establishing a bench that they can count on. They has that with Noel and Ilya. Now they have to develop it again. Just look at the Spurs for the blueprint of how to compose a roster. When the Sixers were winning the people were supporting the team and coming to the games. We need to get back to that! 

Noel returns with his new team, the Dallas Mavericks on 3/17. #Sixerstalk

Nerlens Noel

                                                  
                                                            #SmartResponsibleGaming 

                          Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for updates!
                          Check out our app, Smart Responsible Gaming at thegamingguym.com