Louisville vs California 2010 NCAA Bracket Predictions: Friday night will bring together the (8) California Golden Bears [-1] and the sports betting odds underdog (9) Louisville Cardinals [+1], as they meet at Jacksonville Veterans Arena for a South Region first round face off. According to 2010 NCAA Bracket Predictions experts at SBGGLOBAL.com, the projected OVER/UNDER between Louisville and Cal has been set at a combined total of 149½ points scored tonight.
As coaches prepared to make their 2010 NCAA debut in the first round, both teams made crucial changes to their starting lineups. For the Bears, head coach Mike Montgomery had no choice but to suspend starting forward Omandi Amoke indefinitely due to violation of team rules.
The violation was not noted. “That’s what it is. The kid made a mistake and we felt like we had to take action, and we did, and pretty much the end of the story,” explained coach Montgomery.
As for the team, well they know they have to roll with the punches at this point in the postseason. As Cal guard Patrick Christopher said, “We can’t really worry about things that we can’t control. This is a situation that we can’t control. We have to move forward with it, work with the guys and work with our chemistry that we have. I think we’ll be fine.”
But Cal decided to down-play Amoke’s suspension, since he was averaging 4.8 points and 4.6 rebounds.
In the case of Louisville, head coach Rick Pitino decided he wanted to prepare a smaller frontcourt combination in order to make space for Samardo Samuels. As a result, he benched forward Terrence Jennings and replaced him with Jared Swopshire.
Pitino is of the belief that Swopshire will assist in the perimeter and make it easier for Samuels down low in the painted area. “We’ve been to two straight Elite Eights, coming off a Big East championship the year before, so we have a lot of experience in the backcourt,” he said. “This is their fourth NCAA tournament appearance, our backcourt. So I think they know what it’s all about.”
