Want even more betting news? Sign up for VSiN's free daily newsletter . Listen Live to VSiN's sports betting shows Want even more betting news? Sign up for VSiN's free daily newsletter . Listen Live to VSiN's sports betting shows UCF is the lower-seeded NCAA Tournament team in this No. 8-No. 9 first-round matchup, but the murkiness seems to surround the team that is currently the underdog on the betting board. VCU’s leading scorer, Marcus Evans, was injured in the team’s Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament semifinal game last week and is questionable as of Friday evening. Though this is a Virginia Commonwealth team that brings as many as five players off the bench to play meaningful minutes, this hurts one of the lesser offensive teams in the field. VCU ranks second-worst among March Madness teams in 3-point shooting and must face a Central Florida team with 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall, who registers the second-most blocks of any player in the NCAA Tournament. • Printable NCAA bracket: Complete 2019 March Madness field Though VCU ranks second in Division I basketball in defensive efficiency, the Knights have the upper hand in regards to rebound rate and do a good job of being able to get to the free-throw line. The Rams rank 312th in the country in fouls per game committed, and UCF takes the most free throws per field goal attempt of any NCAA Tournament team. This should allow the Knights to rack up easy points and pull out the win. THE PICK: Take UCF, -1. Greg Peterson handicaps college basketball in VSiN’s Point Spread Weekly. Sign up for a one-week free trial at VSiN.com/free.<doc-sep>We're in the midst of the second day of the NCAA Tournament, and I hope everything's been going your way, and your bracket remains pristine. I'm here to make sure it stays that way. The first day brought us Ja Morant balling out and Wofford's Fletcher Magee dropping bombs from deep to set the NCAA's new record for threes made in a career. I don't know what Day 2 will bring, but I'm hoping it brings us all some winners. After all, whether we play or not, we're all just looking for our one shining moment. Here are my three best picks for Friday. All odds are via Westgate. 1. No. 8 VCU vs. No. 9 UCF: VCU +1 NCAA Tournament Round 1 at Columbia, SC (9:40 p.m. ET, CBS) Everybody I talk to seems to be obsessed by UCF's Tacko Fall in this matchup, and I get it. He's very tall. Seriously, he's 7-foot-6 and weighs 310 pounds. But while Fall is tall, he's not the dominant force you'd expect him to be, or at least, many seem to think he is. That's thrown this line off. VCU received a better seed than UCF for a reason, and I like the Rams to win this game outright. According to KenPom ratings, the Rams have the seventh-best defense in the country, and things like that come in handy during March. While VCU's defensive approach does sometimes lead to it fouling a lot, I'm not nearly as worried about that against a UCF team that's only shooting 64.5 percent from the free throw line this season. The favorites kick things off on Friday night when Duke squares off with North Dakota State at 7:10 p.m ET. The Blue Devlis face a massive 27-point spread, but will they cover? The SportsLine Projection Model has found a strong ATS play that's cashing in 56 percent of simulations, so head on over and check it out. 2. No. 4 Virginia Tech vs. No. 13 Saint Louis: Virginia Tech -10.5 NCAA Tournament Round 1 at San Jose, Calif. (9:57 p.m. ET, truTV) There's plenty of buzz about Buzz Williams leaving Virginia Tech for Texas A&M after the season ends, but as a long-time admirer of Buzz and his teams, I know that isn't affecting his squad heading into the tournament. And his team is a lot better than the Saint Louis squad it will be facing to close out Friday night's action. Saint Louis' defense is good, but Tech's is better, and the offenses don't even seem to be playing the same sport most of the time. The Billikens offense is downright painful to watch, and the best way to sum it all up is to tell you that they only make 59.8 percent of their free throws. The Hokies will roll in this one. The SportsLine Projection Model also loves one side of the North Carolina-Iona spread, which it says cashes in 56 percent of simulations. But even better is the computer's over/under pick, which hits in 68 percent of sims. Get the inside edge before you make your pick! 3. Miami Heat at Milwaukee Bucks: Under 217.5 I have one NBA play for you just in case you're getting burned out by all this college basketball. These are two of the better defensive teams in the league, as Milwaukee enters the contest leading the NBA in defensive efficiency, while Miami ranks seventh. Maybe that's why the under has done so well when they meet. It's 3-0 in their first three meetings of this season, and in those three games, these two have combined for an average of 200.7 points per game, with none of them featuring more than 211. Before locking in your NBA DFS lineups for any tournaments, cash games, or 50-50s on FanDuel, DraftKings or Yahoo, check out what Mike McClure has to say. McClure is rolling through the 2018-19 NBA season, producing multiple lineups that have led to huge returns for followers, including as much as 40x on FanDuel and 84x on DraftKings. You can find his lineups only at SportsLine.<doc-sep>
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images Tacko Fall posted 13 points, 18 rebounds and five blocks as UCF beat VCU 73-58 on Friday at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina. The Knights defense was astounding, holding the Rams to just 31.1 percent shooting. No VCU player had more than 11 points or four field goals. The Rams also went just 6-of-26 from three-point range and lost the battle on the boards to UCF, 42-34. The Rams did not score for the final 5:41 of the first half or the first 5:41 of the second half. Fall proved to be a bit of a matchup problem for the Rams, as this sequence showed: That may not have resulted in a UCF bucket, but this one did: Rams forward Sean Mobley was the tallest VCU starter on the floor at 6'8", so a mismatch seemed inevitable. That could be said for all of UCF's opponents, of course, but Fall had little issue on both ends Friday. Video Play Button Videos you might like As Rodger Sherman of The Ringer pointed out, Fall is remarkably efficient on the offensive end: In fact, Fall has shot at least 50 percent from the field in every game since Jan. 23. He made six of nine shots Friday. The game started in ugly fashion, with a Mobley and-1 layup acting as the contest's only points for the first six minutes. The two teams finally started hitting some shots at the end of the first half, but the Knights proceeded to go on a 19-0 run over the span of VCU's scoreless drought. The run started with back-to-back three-pointers: UCF used its long-range proficiency to control the game, going 9-of-14 from deep. On the other end, the Rams couldn't get much of anything going. Kevin Sweeney of CBB Central revealed VCU's first-half depth chart, which included zero makes from three-point range: The Rams missed their first 13 threes. Two Vince Williams free throws finally stopped the pointless streak, and the Rams finally gained some momentum late in the second half. An 11-0 run cut the UCF lead to 59-50 with 6:41 left, and a De'Riante Jenkins three-pointer later closed the gap to seven. However, the Rams couldn't come any closer than that deficit. UCF will now face Duke on Sunday, once again in Columbia.