Pac-12 Tournament Preview

The Pac-12 Tournament has been dominated by the Oregon Ducks and Arizona Wildcats dating back to 2013. The UCLA Bruins are the only other school to win it during that stretch. The Ducks ended the Wildcats 2-year reign last season to win it for the second time in the last four years. Unsurprisingly, Dana Altman’s and Sean Miller’s squads are currently installed the favorites to cut the nets down in Sin City this time around as well. With two of the best point guards in the conference leading each team’s respective attack, that comes as no surprise. What is a surprise however is the value a number of teams that closed the season out hot are getting from linemakers at online sportsbooks. Let’s put the futures odds under the microscope and see if we can’t weed out some big ticket winners in hopes of bolstering the bankroll for next week’s Madness!

The Pac-12 Tournament is set to tip-off on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 at 3 p.m. ET from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV. The games will be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Network and FS1.

CBB Betting Odds at BookMaker.eu

ODDS TO WIN PAC-12 TOURNAMENT

Favorite to Bet: Oregon Ducks +150

Sorry, but I want absolutely nothing to do with backing the Wildcats in this tournament due to the fact that it’s been placed in the Ducks side of the bracket as the No. 5 seed. Oregon owned them before stealing a pair of overtime wins from them in the regular season. In doing so, the “Quack Attack” moved to 5-0 SU and 4-1 ATS over the last five meetings. On top of all that, the Ducks closed the regular season out like gangbusters throttling its last three opponents by an average of 20.7 points per game! Payton Pritchard will be the best collegiate player to take to the hardwood in Sin City, and he’s got some guys stepping up of late in the forms of Will Richardson and Anthony Mathis who’ve made life without Chris Duarte a bit easier to overcome. While a semifinals matchup against USC wouldn’t be ideal, maybe Arizona finds a way to knock them off instead unless the Huskies bounce them first. Of the top three favorites, Oregon is my choice. Arizona is way too inconsistent and Colorado is such a different team away from Boulder.

Underdog to Bet: UCLA Bruins +700

The Bruins made me some nice coin to close the season, and I’ve come away extremely impressed with the way it’s all come together in Tinseltown under the first season of Mick Cronin’s watch. UCLA enters the Pac-12 Tournament off a heartbreaking loss to the Trojans who buried a game-winning 3-ball at the death to sweep the season rivalry and prevent a share of the regular season title. The loss put an end to the teams seven game winning streak that saw it cover at a 5-1-1 ATS clip; it even managed to cover the closing number in the loss at USC falling 54-52 as 2.5-point dogs. Tyger Campbell has morphed into a heck of a ball distributor, while Cody Riley and Jalen Hill have solidified things for the Bruins in the paint. This is a team playing with utmost confidence right now, and that’s something that could find it make a deep run in this tourney. The team would no doubt love another crack at Stanford who embarrassed them 74-59 before the team started figuring things out. Only one team in the Pac-12 put forth a winning record on the road (ASU), so UCLA’s 6-6 record won’t prevent me from taking advantage of this generous 7-1 offering.

Longshot to Bet: USC Trojans +1000

The Trojans closed the regular season in style ripping off three straight wins against Arizona, Arizona State and UCLA to secure a first round bye with the No. 4 overall seed. That said, linemakers don’t seem to be impressed evidenced by the 10-1 impost offered up on one of the hottest teams the league currently has going. That no doubt has everything to do with USC’s inability to win games on the road. It did so a matter of three times in conference play, so that’s without a doubt one of the main reasons why USC is offering up an inflated return even though it gets the advantage of playing one less game than a bulk of the tournament’s entrants. Even so, Onyeka Okongwu is a beast with unlimited potential that will have his team in the thick of every game moving forward. Teamrankings.com only gives Andy Enfield’s kids a 5.1 percent chance of winning this tournament, while their implied probability at a 10-1 return checks in at just over 9 percent. Had USC been situated on the other side of the bracket and not lost every big game on the road, I’d have a little more faith in Jonah Mathews and his mates making a deep run. Regardless, the Trojans are still worth a beer money investment at this price point.

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