Line Is Too Low In Colorado Vs. Marquette

Colorado vs. Marquette, 12:10 ET

It has been a good three days of college hoops, and we've made it to the final day of the opening weekend. So far, I feel like this has been a pretty entertaining tournament. We've had a wide range of games - some upsets, some blowouts, and some nail-biters that were "must-watch" games. I continue to push for some wins before we reach the National Champion and hope that we can put an exclamation point on the end of a really strong season. Today we are going to put a play on the game between Colorado and Marquette. 

Colorado played in one of the best games we've seen in the opening weekend. In their game against Florida, they were able to win the game 102-100 and escape with the victory. If you didn't watch it, this game almost slipped through the cracks. They were up seven points with about 2 minutes to go in the game. They were up six with 50 seconds left in the game. Walter Clayton of Florida was able to hit a three and pull the game within three. A turnover and foul allowed Clayton to hit another free throw to bring it to a two-point game with 20 seconds to go. After a Cody Williams free throw, Colorado was up three. Clayton once again put his cape on and dribbled down, pulled up, sank a three and tied the game at 100. After Colorado called a timeout, they were able to run a play and get a jumper that seemed to hit every part of the rim to fall, and they ultimately won the game 102-100. To be honest, I'm not mentioning that Clayton came closer than comfortable to hitting a shot from the opposite free-throw line. This was technically the second game that Colorado has won in the tournament as Colorado was one of the first four. They were able to take down Boise State in the opener, winning that game by seven. I'll give it to the team, they are competitive and continue to fight in games. 

Can Colorado keep this run alive? (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)

Marquette will be quite the test for Colorado. The Golden Eagles came out flat to start their first game and trailed at halftime to Western Kentucky. They were down by seven before they stepped up their defensive intensity in the second half, holding their opponent to just 26 points. It wasn't just the defense that was good, their offense found a way to succeed with 51 points in the second half as well, winning the game by 18 points. A huge bright spot for Marquette was Tyler Kolek's return. Kolek was able to score 18 points in 38 minutes and was a solid contributor on defense. He also paced the offense with 11 assists, constantly finding his teammates for open looks. It was encouraging to see that Marquette was strong enough to respond to a bad start and put Western Kentucky away in the second half. If they ended up playing a close game, I would have a lot less faith in them in this game. Some teams don't make the adjustment necessary and it results in continuous struggle for the entire tournament. Marquette hasn't been great against some of the best competition, but Colorado isn't the same quality of team that they've lost to in the past. 

Anything can happen in the tournament, but I think the books are favoring Colorado a little too much in this one and thinking the game will be closer than it actually is. I think Marquette is the better team, the one that has more talent, and a better coach. I'm going to take Marquette to win this one and cover the -3.5.