With the NCAA men’s basketball tournament getting started, it’s time to take a look at some of our favorite betting matchups among the first-round games. Today, I’m looking at the VCU/Oregon 7/10 matchup that takes place Saturday of the first round.

As always, Dana Altman’s Oregon Ducks flipped a switch in February and went 9-1 to close out the regular season. Altman’s transfer-heavy rosters tend to need time to coalesce into cohesive units — a trait further complicated by the truncated nature of this past offseason. The February surge coincided with the return of Will Richardson, who primarily played off the ball last season alongside the indomitable Payton Pritchard. Richardson’s return this season moved PAC-12 Player of the Year Chris Duarte into a more natural scoring guard role and relegated the underwhelming Amauri Hardy to the bench. Interior defense remained a seasonlong issue after 6-foot-11 center N’Faly Dante went down with a season-ending knee injury in December and Altman moved 6-6 Eugene Omoruyi into a small-ball “5” role, where he often dominates slower defenders but is vertically limited against elite frontcourt players.

VCU finished the regular season in the top five nationally in block rate and steal rate. While the Rams aren’t quite the all-out, full-court trapping monster of the early Shaka Smart years, Mike Rhoades’ defense causes half-court mayhem for ill-prepared opponents. Bones Hyland exploded onto the national scene as a three-level scorer and won the A10 POY as a sophomore, but the game-to-game scoring contributions from the supporting cast are sporadic and unpredictable.

VCU offense/Oregon defense

The Rams are a highly aggressive, rim-seeking offense that attacks via the drive at a top-20 rate nationally. Straight-line drives tend to be futile against Altman, who mixes up his defenses without warning and clogs the gaps more effectively than any coach west of the Mississippi. Omoruyi, Duarte and L.J. Figueroa each finished in the top seven in the PAC-12 in steal rate as drivers lost control of the ball while driving into the swarming Ducks’ defense. You really need to beat Oregon from “over the top,” just as Oregon State did in the Pac 12 semis (10 of 19 from 3). VCU only has two shooters (Hyland and Vince Williams) and Altman will deploy every trick in the bag to get the ball out of Hyland’s hands. Williams isn’t generally capable of scoring outbursts and lacks the upside to carry the offense if Hyland is either in foul trouble (as he was against St. Bonaventure) or rendered ineffective by the Oregon defense. Really tough night ahead for the Rams’ offense.

Oregon offense/VCU defense

Altman has a diverse offensive playbook of set plays and motion-based actions. VCU’s defense is hell for pick and roll-based offenses as Rhoades will frequently blitz and trap the ball-handler, resulting in an abundance of turnovers. Oregon can circumvent that problem entirely as the Ducks run pick-and-roll at one of the lowest rates in the country and use frequent off-ball cutting, flex cuts, and duck-ins to generate quality looks in the half court. The Ducks turned it over at the lowest rate in the Pac-12 and aren’t likely to be bothered by the VCU pressure. VCU’s bigs are hyperactive around the rim, but their devotion to blocking everything leaves the Rams exposed on the defensive glass (No. 289 in DEF REB %), where Omoruyi, Figueroa and Williams clean up some messes. There are quite a few paths to offense here for Oregon.

Pick: Oregon -5.5 or better