ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF TOPS WINTHROP IN NCAA HOOP PLAY-IN GAME

A frequent complaint of college basketball fans is that some teams pad their record with painfully easy non-conference schedules.  No one is saying that about Arkansas-Pine Bluff.  After starting the season 0-11 against a downright brutal non-conference schedule, they recovered to win the SWAC Championship.  Their persistence has been rewarded with a NCAA tournament date against #1 seeded Duke, earned by virtue of a 61-44 victory over Winthrop in the play-in game held in Dayton, Ohio.

College basketball betting enthusiasts who backed Arkansas-Pine Bluff as +5  underdogs were rewarded with their outright victory.  The win broke a 17 game losing streak by teams from the SWAC in NCAA tournament play.  A ‘non board’ conference, the Golden Lions entered this contest with a 1-4 record against this spread this season.  The 105 combined points scored went well UNDER the posted total of 115.  Arkansas-Pine Bluff has now gone UNDER in 4 of their 6 posted totals this year.

They now face #1 ranked Duke on Friday in Jacksonville, Florida.  And while they’re aware that a #16 team has never beaten a #1 seed in the first round they’re definitely prepared for such a formidable challenge.  Arkansas-Pine Bluff opened their season with 11 straight road games and not exactly against weak opposition—among their non-conference opponents were Texas-El Paso, Michigan, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, Missouri, Kansas State and Oregon.

Golden Lion’s head coach George Ivory suggested that the ‘trial by fire’ brought his team closer together:

"We think it brought them together. You've got to stay together on the road. You get to know each other better. You go through some bumps and bruises on the road, playing in some pretty tough places."

Ivory sounded nonplussed at the prospect of facing a powerhouse team like Duke:

"You see Duke a lot on TV. You see them so much, it's kind of like you just know what they're going to do."

Big South champion Winthrop has an impressive streak of making the NCAA tournament, with 9 appearances in the last 12 years.  Once they get there, however, things haven’t gone as well—the Eagles have only 1 win in tournament play.  Head coach Randy Peele said the loss was out of character for his team:

"We picked a bad time to have a bad game. We played really frustrated. I hadn't seen that from us for a while."

The line for Friday’s Arkansas-Pine Bluff game has yet to be posted, but based on the other #1 vs. #16 matchups Duke will likely be favored by more than 20 points.  Despite a dismal 1-17 SU record in NCAA tournament games the SWAC has fared better against the pointspread with a respectable 8-9 mark.