BetUS Sportsbook is set to kick off its second week of sports betting for the NCAA Tournament. Before placing your basketball bets, keep an eye on these impact players in Friday’s games…

Terrence Williams, Louisville Cardinals: Without a doubt, if Head Coach Rick Pitino didn’t have Terrence Williams on his team, the Cards would probably already be watching the rest of this tournament from the couch. Siena gave Louisville absolutely all it could handle, but the only player that the Saints couldn’t seem to put a clamp on was Williams. He went 9/14 from the floor, including 4/6 from downtown for 24 points. He also chipped in with 15 boards, four assists, and a pair of steals to once again fill up the stat sheet. The only categories Williams led the Cards in this year were steals (2.4 per game) and assists (5.0 per game). He was third on the team in three-point shooting (38.4%), second in points (12.7 per game), and second in rebounds (8.7 per game), and has simply been a do-it-all type of point forward all season. The Cards probably have the easiest draw of all of the #1 seeds to reach the Final Four, and Williams will do his best to assure they get there.

Blake Griffin, Oklahoma Sooners: With all due respect to the likes of Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf, no list of impact players would be complete without the man who is arguably the nation’s biggest force. There’s no way to understate Blake Griffin’s impact on the Sooners, as the team is mediocre at best without him on the floor. Griffin led the team in scoring (22.5 points per game) and rebounding (14.4 rebounds per game, first in the nation), and has done just about everything once again in the tournament. Twenty-eight points and 13 rebounds against Morgan State was only an “average” day in comparison to the 33 points and 17 boards he put up against Big Blue on Saturday. His only bugaboo may be free throw shooting. Griffin has shot 25/32 from the floor (78.1%), but only 11/20 from the foul line (55.0%). If Syracuse is smart, everyone is using all five fouls against the sophomore phenom and making him earn it from the charity stripe.

Cole Aldrich, Kansas Jayhawks: Sherron Collins may be doing all of the scoring for the Jayhawks (58 points in two tournament games), but if the defending champs are going to reach the Elite 8, it’s going to have to be on the inside. Sophomore C Cole Aldrich has had some monstrous rebounding efforts so far in this tournament, recording 11 against North Dakota State, and a whopping 20 against Dayton. Oh, 15/24 from the field for an average of 18 points per game and a total of 12 blocks in two games isn’t too shabby either. Aldrich picked up a double-double against the Spartans in January (14 points and 11 boards), but he’ll need to do much better than that if KU is going to keep playing into the weekend.

Ty Lawson, North Carolina: After twenty minutes of basketball against LSU, Carolina HC Roy Williams had to have egg on his face. He started his superstar G Ty Lawson in his first game since the regular season finale, and he looked nothing short of awful. In the second half though, Lawson was a completely different ball player. He scored 21 of his 23 in the second stanza, and single-handedly kept North Carolina in a game it had little business winning and zero business covering. Expect the pace of the game against the Zags to be frantic, and with Lawson running the show, that’s exactly where the Heels want it.


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