NCAA Tournament Predictions -- Clemson and New Mexico State Slug It Out

  • In Charles Jay
  • Fri, Mar 16th, 2018 1:26:18 pm
  • By Charles Jay - Exclusive to OSGA


The New Mexico State Aggies and Clemson Tigers are both defensively-sound teams, and they will get together on Friday night in San Diego in the NCAA Tournament.

The Clemson Tigers started out like a house afire, but since losing one of their best players, they have been stuck in neutral, to a certain extent. Now, they have to get themselves together for first-round NCAA Tournament action, as they have a very capable team in front of them. The New Mexico State Aggies are waiting for them at the Viejas Arena in San Diego, in a game that starts at 9:57 PM ET and is televised by TruTV. If you are a BetAnySports customer, you can place wagers even after this game has started, using the state-of-the-art software from Live Betting Ultra.

Clemson comes into this game with a record of 23-9. And they suffered a huge disappointment in the NIT last season when they blew a 20-point lead in losing to Oakland. But fervent backers have a lot of faith in head coach Brad Brownell, who has had only one losing season in the last 16 years, leading Wright state, North Carolina-Wilmington and now Clemson into Big Dance action.

This is a team that won 14 of its first 15 games, and has a lot of nice wins on its mantle, including Ohio State, Florida, Miami and North Carolina, but an injury to 6-8 forward Donte Grantham, the team leader in Offensive Rating, was devastating. As a result, they have gone only 7-6 in their last 13 games, scoring less than 60 points on five different occasions.

In the NCAA Tournament betting odds posted on this game by the folks at BetAnySports, Clemson is the favorite:

Clemson Tigers -5
New Mexico State Aggies +5

Over 133 points -110
Under 133 points -110

New Mexico State is 28-5, and they were the champions of the Western Athletic Conference, a relatively weak league. But the Aggies were anything BUT weak this season; true, they got blown out by St. Mary's, but they also beat Miami and Davidson in a pre-season tournament in Hawaii, and also scored two victories over in-state rival New Mexico. While Clemson is eighth in the nation in Adjusted Defensive Efficiency, the Aggies are not much further down the list at #16. And unlike the Tigers, who is given up 35.5% from beyond the three-point arc, New Mexico State is solid defending both two-pointers and three-pointers. They rank in the top 20 in the nation in both categories, in fact.

New Mexico, which is on its third coach in three seasons with Chris Jans, allows 63.3 points per game, and they are tough as nails on the glass, mostly because of their Rodman-type, 6-5 Jemerrio Jones, who is second in the nation in rebounding. He is, according to the metrics published at KenPom.com, the top defensive rebounder in the country, and he is one of those high-energy guys who gets the go-ahead from Jans to dribble the ball down the floor after pulling down a rebound.

Scoring is not necessarily Jones' thing, but the Aggies get a lot of point production out of Zach Lofton, who is on his third school, after playing at Illinois State and Texas Southern, who averages 19.8 points. Certainly Clemson has a defensive stopper in Elijah Thomas (2.2 blocks per game), but the loss of Grantham has not improved what they've done, and New Mexico State won't be intimidate din the least. We're taking the points.

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(The preceding information was furnished for news matter only)


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