We’ve got our dancing shoes on once again here at Cappers Info, and that means that it’s time for the NCAA Tournament picks to continue. Our next set of March Madness Bracket Predictions take us to the East Region, where the #12 California Golden Bears and the #4 Syracuse Orange meet in the Third Round.
East Region Picks: #12 California Golden Bears vs. #4 Syracuse Orange
Date: Saturday, March 23rd, 9:40 ET
East Region Location: HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA
California vs. Syracuse Live on TV: TBS
Third Round Betting Lines
#12 California Golden Bears +7.5
#4 Syracuse Orange -7.5
Over/Under 124.5
The Orange are going to have their way with the Golden Bears as we see it on Saturday in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. Syracuse’s 2-3 zone is really setup perfectly to stop everything that Cal is going to try to do in the half-court. G Allen Crabbe and G Justin Cobbs are long range shooters, and they are going to have to either figure out how to slash into the heart of the 2-3 zone, or shoot over or around it. It’s just not going to happen. The Orange are playing out of their mind defensively right now, and if you take out a bad second half of basketball against the Louisville Cardinals in the Big East Tournament, teams just aren’t scoring anything against this unit. On top of that, Head Coach Jim Boeheim has a team that is relatively rested, knowing that no one really had to play all that long or that hard to beat the Montana Grizzlies on Thursday. The Golden Bears meanwhile, had to play an insanely physical game against the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels that came right down to the wire. In the end, this is just a bad looking game for Cal. We love the way that the Pac-12 has played here in this tournament to this point, but this is where teams like the Golden Bears are going to bow out.
California vs. Syracuse Free Pick: Syracuse Orange -7.5
California vs. Syracuse Predictions: Syracuse 68 – California 58









