NCAA Tournament Bracket: No. 4 Gonzaga vs. No. 13 Akron

A matchup of Zips vs. Zags is what awaits fans when the Akron Zips take on the Gonzaga Bulldogs on Thursday. (AP Images)"]

Defense has been a problem for the Zags in the past, but there has been a renewed emphasis this season. Even in the games they lost, the defense was there.

The Zags have advanced beyond the first weekend of the tournament just once in the past seven seasons and have lost to a worse-seeded team four times during that stretch.

This is the fourth consecutive season in which the Zips have won 23 games and the fifth in a row in which they’ve won at least 19, so this team knows what it takes to win. Problem is, they can’t win a shootout, but they can keep it close in a grind-it-out affair. The Bulldogs are 5-1 ATS in their last six games overall. Get your NCAA basketball betting in the Bodog Sportsbook.