March Madness Player Prop Bet – 3/19
This Faceoff Sports Network’s March Madness Player Prop Bet – 3/19 features Richmond big Grant Golden.
We are now past the first couple of days of March Madness and now headed towards the 2nd round of games. Last time I wrote up on why Providence would cover the spread despite all the love the public had on the Jack Rabbits to upset. This time out we’re not backing Providence, as much as I do like them today.
I do believe Richmond matches up well vs Providence and I’m not ready to risk money on Providence when I do believe Richmond has a very good chance to move on. Instead, I’m going to move to the player prop market and I’m going to take Grant Golden Over 12.5 Points as I believe he has the best match-up on the court.
The big man from Richmond, Grant Golden, will have the best match-up on the court today as he matches up against Nate Watson and this season Watson hasn’t been so good on the defensive side. Golden is 6’10” big for Richmond and has averaged 13.8 PPG. Golden will get matched up against Watson and Golden is a big who can space the floor and score while 13.8 PPG might not seem anything big, he was once a top scorer for the team.
Being with the program since 2016 and back in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 season while Richmond was rebuilding the program, he was their leading scorer in both years with 15.6 PPG and 17.2 PPG. As I said, Golden can space the floor and while Nate Watson from Providence does struggle against bigs who can space the floor, Grant Golden shoots 28.4% from the 3pt line which isn’t a very impressive number, but he does shoot them and he can make them.
The 3pt percentage doesn’t look impressive but his field goal percentage is impressive as he shoots 50.6% and has scored 13 or more points in 22 out of 36 games. When you look at how the bigs have fared against Nate Watson in the last couple of weeks it becomes very concerning for Providence but looks fantastic for our bet. In Providence’s last game against South Dakota State, Douglas Wilson who was matched up against Watson scored 13 points while shooting 42.9%.
The bigs who have matched up against Nate Watson have scored 13+ in Providence’s last 5 games. Golden has a 107.6 offensive rating which is 6th best on the team and also owns the highest usage rate percentage on the team at 27.9%. Golden is also 4th on the team in true shooting percentage at 57.1% and ranks 3rd in effective field goal percentage at 54.5%.
When you look at the defensive rating for Providence it’s led by their guards and their big men for Providence all have the worst defensive rating on the team. With that being said we know how impressive Jacob Gilyard is for Richmond but I do think Providence guards will do everything to limit him from scoring and I do believe this will open the game for Grant Golden to get the ball and score.