UConn-Missouri: 2009 Men's NCAA Tournament West Region Elite Eight Picks

Hopefully, you've had a chance to check out our site by now—The Sports Chat Place—where we've been doing college hoops picks against the spread all season.

There are five of us from The Sports Chat Place who also write on B/R: Ryan, Mitch, Dave, Shaun, and Steve. There is a very good chance that, if you have been following college basketball this season (even casually), you have read something by one of us.

During the NCAA Tournament, we have put together a few articles with all of our quick picks against the spread. The idea is that everyone uses the same line and are allowed to put their picks and one to two sentences.

In the Sweet 16 write-ups, I mentioned that the site had more than 650,000 hits (after having just over 500,000 at the start of the tournament). We now have over 700,000 hits since the site went up at the beginning of January!

Thank you to everyone who has checked out our site!

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NCAA Tournament Elite Eight—West Region

Saturday, March 28, 2009

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No. 1 Connecticut vs. No. 3 Missouri
4:40 PM ET

	Record	Conf	ATS	RPI	SOS	PF	PA
No. 3 Missouri	31-6	12-4	17-9-1	10	38	81.1	66.6
No. 1 Connecticut	30-4	15-3	15-14	8	29	78.5	63.5

	FG%	D. FG%	3P%	D. 3P%	FT%	RPG	SPG	APG	TPG	BPG
No. 3 Missouri	47.2	41.3	35.3	30.8	67.4	39.3	10.3	18.4	12.0	3.8
No. 1 Connecticut	47.5	37.4	34.5	30.6	67.7	45.7	5.9	15.9	12.5	7.8

Line: UConn -5.5

Mitch: UConn -5.5—Mizzou looked vulnerable inside against Memphis. UConn's inside is 7'3".
Dave: Mizzou +5.5—They showed they can shread a good defense.
Ryan: UConn -5.5—The Huskies have outscored their opponents by 90+ points in the tournament. Not even a recruiting allegation can slow them down.
Shaun: Mizzou +5.5—The Tigers will keep this close against the dominant Huskies.
Steve: Mizzou +5.5—After dismantling a team as fundamentally sound as Memphis, Missouri is rolling. Without Jerome Dyson, UConn will be hard pressed to control the pace and contain the Tigers' guards. No reason to think this won't be close.

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If you enjoyed these picks, please check out The Sports Chat Place, where we will be previewing and picking every game that March Madness has to offer!