The Saint Louis Billikens would not have been a part of the NCAA Tournament had they not won the Atlantic 10 tournament title, but they did show patience and put some defense on display as they worked their way through the field. Now their reward is a date with the Virginia Tech Hokies in the Round of 64, and that game is going to tip off at 9:57 PM ET at the SAP Center in San Jose.

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Saint Louis' 10-8 record in the A-10 was not all that impressive, and signature wins were few and far between. They did beat Dayton, and they had an early two-point win over Seton Hall, not to mention a 68-64 loss to powerful Houston, but they were also handled pretty easily by Florida State, which held them to 28.6% shooting. Points are often hard to come by for the Bills, who don't shoot too well from anywhere (more on that in a minute).

Virginia Tech was no slouch defensively, ranking 26th in Adjusted Efficiency, and they have a couple of nice trophies on their wall, with straight-up wins over Purdue and Duke. But like Saint Louis, they had problems with Florida State too, losing to them in the second round of the Big East tournament.

In the March Madness betting odds that have been posted at BetAnySports on this game, the Hokies are laying points:

Virginia Tech Hokies -10.5
Saint Louis Billikens +10.5

Over 126 points -110
Under 126 points -110

First, let's get to the matter of Justin Robinson. The Virginia Tech point guard, one of the best at his position in the ACC, has missed a dozen games with a foot injury, but he is returning for this game. And he has a practice under his belt. We're sure that Buzz Williams won't have him earmarked for heavy duty. Just having him on the floor will be a boost, as long as he doesn't disrupt everyone's timing.

This looms as a very bad matchup for the Billikens. If there is one thing the V-Tech defense knows how to do, it is channel the opposing offense to the outside to take threes - to an extreme. In fact, opponents have taken more than half their shots against the Gobblers from beyond the three-point arc.

And while that might be inviting against a team like, say, Wofford, which took advantage of that against Seton Hall last night,. such a thing is a nightmare for Saint Louis, which is God-awful shooting the triple. Let's put it this way - there are 353 Division I college basketball teams. SLU is 327th shooting three-pointers - at just 30.8%. In point of fact, going inside the arc doesn't help much either, as Saint Louis is 285th in that category. So there is not likely to be any relief for them here.

And they will leave points on the table at the free throw line too. Only one team in the nation has hit a lower percentage of their chances from the charity stripe than the Billikens' 59.8%. And what a stark contrast that is with the Hokies, who are 75.8% accurate (that's top 25). Will V-Tech create enough offense? Well, Saint Louis does a very good job defending the three-point circle, but the Hokies are eighth best in the nation shooting it (39.8%) and can throw a number of 40% guys out there, including Robinson.

Another thing - one of the first things Robinson, a senior, talked about to reporters was that this is a "revenge" game, as the Hokies lost to Saint Louis at the Garden just a year and a half ago in the 2K Classic. Other players like Ahmed Hill and Ty Outlaw went through that indignity. Yeah, we're going to lay the points with what will be a focused Virginia Tech squad.

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