Ryan's Picks
Pick #1 Cincinnati Bearcats
1. @ Lazio: Win
The Cincinnati Bearcats should beat the Wright State Raiders. Though Cincinnati will be missing some players from suspension, after their fight with Xavier, they still have enough talent to beat the Wright State Raiders. Wright State only averages 55.2 points per game and is not in the top 300 in the nation in any of the major statistical categories. Cincinnati will be looking to move past the fighting incident and I expect a strong effort from them in a close victory over Wright State.
Pick #2 Eastern Washington Win or Single Digit loss
I expect the Eastern Washington-UCLA game to be closer than double digits. Eastern Washington is a good team that has a above average offense. The Eagles played tough at Gonzaga only losing by 8 points. They also only lost by 12 points to Oregon, and they blew out UC Davis and Hawaii. UCLA meanwhile is down as a program as a whole and suspended their best player Reeves Nelson for the year. UCLA does not rank in the top 200 in any major statistical categories. I expect Eastern Washington to at least make their game with UCLA a single digit game.
Christian's Picks
Lazio is a capable team from Spain while Sporting Lisbon is from Portugal. Portuguese teams are normally better than any Spaniard team and in this case, it's true. However, the main catch is that Sporting has already advanced and they have absolutely nothing to play for. Therefore, they will start a weak squad for this game. On the other hand, Lazio has everything to play for seeing as how they need a win here at home to advance to the next round. Even though Sporting beat Lazio 2-1 at home earlier in the UEFA Europa League play, this will be different. Lazio is nice at home and they are favorites at around -185 and 63.7% to win. Lazio will win this.
