Florida State-Notre Dame Line at -5: VCU vs. Purdue Line -9

Two of the most anticipated games of the Third Round of the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament take place Sunday with the Florida State-Notre Dame line coming in at Fighting Irish -5 and an upset-minded VCU team the 9-point underdog against Purdue.  (all odds courtesy of Bookmaker.com here)

The Fighting Irish were getting close to 85 percent of the betting action on the spread.  Notre Dame opened the season as 150/1 long shots of winning the 2011 NCAA Tournament and have been one of the most wagered on teams all season.  The line on this game should be closer to -7.

VCU and Purdue action on the spread is more balanced.

The Associated Press notes that the 10th-seeded Seminoles (22-10) have the nation's stingiest defense, allowing just 36 percent shooting. They're holding opponents to less than 62 points a game.

"They're as tough as any 10 seed that I've seen," said Tim Abromaitis, Notre Dame's second-leading scorer. "They're as big and physical as pretty much any team in the country. Obviously, that's going to pose a lot of issues for us."

The Fighting Irish beat Akron by a score of 69-56.  Ben Hansbrough led all scorers with 15 points.  The 69 points scored by Notre Dame are its most in an NCAA tournament game since 2003. The Irish have now advanced to the round of 32 under Mike Brey in five of seven NCAA tournament appearances.

"It took us a long time to kind of calm down. I'm glad the halftime was 20 minutes because we needed all of it just to kind of ratchet our blood pressure down a little bit," coach Mike Brey said after the game.

Florida State, meanwhile, enjoyed a bit of an upset over favored Texas A&M in its Friday tournament game.

"It feels pretty good, but we're not satisfied with the win," Seminoles guard Derwin Kitchen said. "We want to try and keep playing as long as possible."

The Seminoles picked up their first tournament win since 1998.

Elsewhere, 11^th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth has become one of the main Cinderella teams of the 2011 Tournament, with its stunning win over 6^th-seeded Georgetown while Purdue comes into this game having decimated St. Peters.  The line on this game appears to be accurate. 

NCAA TOURNAMENT- THIRD ROUND UNITED CENTER - CHICAGO, IL

- Dan Shapiro, Gambling911.com  

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