St. Mary's vs. Richmond NCAA Bracket Predictions 2010: NCAA Tournament South Bracket first round competition will continue at 3 p.m. Eastern on Thursday when the seven-seed Richmond Spiders of the Atlantic 10 take on 10-seed St. Mary's Gaels of the West Coast Conference at Dunkin donuts Center in Providence, R.I. NCAA Bracket oddsmakers at SPORTSBETTING.com has installed Richmond as 2-chalk favorites versus St. Mary's with a 134.5 total.
St. Mary's earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament by virtue of its winning the WCC Conference tournament. Saint Mary's enters the tournament with a 26-5 overall record, and finished the WCC regular season in second place with an 11-3 ledger.
Richmond enters the tournament after posting a 26-8 overall record. The Spiders, who received eight votes in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll last week, posted a 13-3 record in Atlantic 10 Conference play for a third place regular season finish. Richmond, who advanced to the championship game of the A-10 Tournament, falling to No. 17 ranked Temple 56-52 on Sunday, received an at-large bid into this year's tournament.
St. Mary's has won 15 of its last 18 games overall, with two losses coming to nationally ranked Gonzaga and one to Portland. The team has won 10 games in WCC play in each of the last three seasons and posted a 14-2 at home this season and had a +21.8 scoring margin in its 14 home wins. The Gaels are 9-2 in road games, and have an 11-3 record in road games.
Richmond is averaging 69.3 points per game, while allowing the opposition 62.2 points per game, for a +7.1 scoring margin. The Spiders are shooting 44.6 percent from the floor, 35.1 percent from three, and 69.7 percent from the free throw line. Richmond is allowing its opponents to shoot 39.2 percent from the floor, 29.7 percent from 3-point range, and 70.6 percent from the free throw line.
Both of these teams are capable of scoring up in the 80's; therefore we do not expect a defensive game. The best bet is betting the OVER (134.5)
