BASKETBALL COLLEGE BASKETBALL ARTICLES

So how’s the Midwest Region of your bracket looking? It looks like hot garbage if you’re like me and penciled Illinois all the way into the Final Four! You can blame it all on Porter Moser and his Loyola-Chicago Ramblers who pulled a wire-to-wire job of the Fighting Illini in the Round of 32. I wanted to propel Cameron Krutwig and his mates deep into my bracket, but a Round of 32 tilt against the B1G champs gave me pause. Shame on the selection committee for installing the Ramblers a No. 8 seed!... 

The 16 team NIT Tournament has been whittled down to eight. It might not be as exciting as what’s gone down in the NCAA Tournament, but these kids have come to play; put some respect on the participants! Richmond, Western Kentucky, NC State, Boise State, Colorado State, Louisiana Tech, Memphis and Mississippi State comprise the eight team quarterfinal field, and there is some major t... 

The NCAA Tournament matchups between the No. 5 seed and the No. 12 seed always have drama. It seems like every year at least one upset comes from this part of the bracket – except for last year of course. The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos might be the best team no one has heard of cruising to the Big West Conference regular season and tournament titles while racking up 22 wins. The Gauchos are making their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011 as the No. 12 seed and tangle with the Big East’s C... 

It’s time to revisit our futures odds portfolio for the upcoming NCAA Tournament one last time with the First Four and Field of 64 etched in stone. Now that we know every potential path each and every team would have to take in order to cut down the nets, things get a bit clearer. More importantly, value spots surface with some of the top seeds being forced to run up against a number of hellacious op... 

I can’t wait for the Saturday evening slate to tip-off in the West Region when the No. 13 seed Ohio Bobcats look to pull the upset against the No. 4 seed Virginia Cavaliers! Believe it when I tell you that Jason Preston and his mates have the wherewithal to not only cover what I believe to be an inflated number, but also cash in on the moneyline and log one of the bigger upsets of the 2021 NCAA Tournament at online sportsbooks. As efficient UVA’s defense has been this season, it’s far from the l... 

Of all the No. 4 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, I’m most bullish on the Purdue Boilermakers chances of making a deep run. Matt Painter’s kids finished fourth in arguably the toughest conference in the nation behind Iowa, Illinois and Michigan. It would’ve made more noise in the B1G Tournament had it not been forced to exert a ton of energy to come back against Ohio State in the second half before runn... 

I guess hoops fans can be twice as excited for the NCAA Tournament since last year’s festivities were shuttered due to the coronavirus scare. There will be a dance this year though it will look much different with all games played in and around Indianapolis. One of the marquee first round matchups is in name only since both the Wisconsin Badgers and North Carolina Tar Heels struggled. But name recognition always draws a crowd and this one should be full of excitement with the clubs so evenly-mat... 

According to the most recent Bracketology forecasts, nine Big Ten teams are comfortably in the NCAA Tournament. Fourteen teams make the B1G their home, so it can be postulated that the Big Ten is the most dominant conference in the country; for the second straight season. This tourney has been dominated by the Michigan schools in recent years. Michigan State took home the hardware in the most recent back in 2019, but it was Michigan that cut the nets down each of the prior two seasons. While Mic... 

A year ago, the Alabama Crimson Tide and Arkansas Razorbacks possessed +2500 and +2200 respective odds of winning the SEC Tournament. Now, Nate Oats and Eric Musselman are overlooking the co-favorites to win it; that’s simply outstanding! A team on the complete opposite end of the spectrum is the Kentucky Wildcats who check in with a bloated +1500 rate of return to cut the nets down at online sportsbooks. A far cry from last year’s team that saw John Calipari’s troops locked in as the +175 favor... 

The Kansas Jayhawks and Iowa State Cyclones have dominated the Big 12 Tournament dating back to 2013 with the former taking home the title three times and the latter four. Though the Kansas Jayhawks somehow managed to snag the No. 2 seed, it’s not even the fourth best team in the bracket according to linemakers! The top dog is unsurprisingly the Baylor Bears who went on to accrue the regular season title and win all but one of its 22 played games. Even so, this bracket is loaded with teams desti... 

The Duke Blue Devils are still the defending champions of the ACC Tournament due to the fact that last year’s installment was cancelled. When this year’s is all but done, that will no longer be the case. The Dookies were lined as co-favorites to win it last season along with the Florida State Seminoles, but they now find seven teams ahead of them with shorter odds to cut the nets down come Saturday night. Though FSU and Virginia clock in as the top dogs this time around, this tournament looks to... 

The Michigan Wolverines just got done kicking the ever-living tar out of the Michigan State Spartans on Thursday night to tally win No. 19 of the college basketball betting season. Juwan Howard’s kids are destined to land a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament regardless of what goes down in Sunday’s rematch; or the B1G Tournament for that matter. Only Gonzaga and Baylor have shorter ... 

As it stands right now, the Duke Blue Devils aren’t in the Field of 64. To qualify, Coach K’s squad is going to need to win the ACC Tournament with it 15-9 SU and only 9-8 SU in conference play. As for Roy Williams and the North Carolina Tar Heels, most bracketologists have them installed a No. 10 or No. 11 seed. Some even have the Heels making their first-ever appearance in the First Four! Duke is a 285-1 choice to win the national championship at online sportsbooks, while UNC clocks in at 120-... 

The Big Dance is seriously just a couple weeks away! After the year sports bettors were just forced to swallow, it feels great to have that statement roll off the tongue. Here’s to hoping all these kids get to lace up their dancing shoes once again! We’re getting down to the nitty gritty. Teams are making a final push to win their respective conference’s regular season title to better their positioning in upcoming tourneys. Other conferences have already begun playing their tournaments. It’s all... 

The North Carolina Tar Heels possess three road wins in ACC play to this point of the season. The first came at Miami by a grand total of two points as 3.5-point favorites. The second took place at PITT where the Heels beat the Panthers 75-65 as 3.5-point chalk. The third went down at Cameron Indoor where Roy Williams’ troops disposed of a Duke Blue Devils team currently on the outside looking into the NCAA Tournament field. None of those teams are current Big Dance qualifiers. Neither is the Sy... 

The No. 8 ranked Villanova Wildcats could find themselves in a major lookahead spot early Sunday afternoon when they invade the Hinkle Fieldhouse looking to sweep the regular season rivalry from the unranked Butler Bulldogs. Jay Wright’s squad just so happen to have a huge tilt lined up with the Creighton Bluejays on Wednesday, so it’s certainly within the realm of reason that the lesser Bulldogs could catch the Wildcats looking ahead; especially after Nova skunked Butler 85-66 as 12.5-point hom... 

The No. 2 Baylor Bears didn’t look great in their return to the hardwood on Tuesday night off a three-week hiatus. It was forced to fight tooth and nail just to outlast the Iowa State Cyclones as decided 24-point favorites. Rust was to be expected however, and online sportsbooks paid for it with the Clones taking most of the sharp money in that fixture. With a game under the belt and only four games remaining on the regular season docket, college basketball bettors should expect to see the versi... 

Winners of just five games in conference and only sitting two-games over .500 overall, the Michigan State Spartans have been one of the bigger disappointments of the college basketball betting season at online sportsbooks. The team does however have an enormous opportunity ahead of it this week with a pair of teams ranked in the Top-10 paying East Lansing a visit. Up first is a clash with the No. 5 ranked Illinois Fighting Illini. It doesn’t get any easier after that with Chris Holtmann’s No. 4 ... 

The last time the Kansas Jayhawks ran up against the Texas Longhorns, Bill Self suffered the worst home defeat in his 18 years calling the shots on the sideline in Lawrence. With that, he should have his kids locked and loaded for this revenge bout set to go down in front of a nationally televised audience on Super Tuesday. But will it even matter? For all intents and purposes; KU has been a major disappointment for CBB bettors in logging an 11-11 overall ATS record, while posting 6-6 SU and ATS records when playing away from the Phog Allen Fieldhouse. Texas is yet to log a single resume boosting win since unpausing the program due to COVID in late January. In fact, you could say it’s been embarrassed dropping games to Oklahoma, Baylor and OK-State before righting the ship most recently against K-State and TCU. It’s never swept the regular season rivalry from the Jayhawks, but linemakers at online sportsbooks will have the No. 12 ranked team in the country installed favorites to pull off that feat in this one. ... 

Should the No. 4 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes take care of business in Happy Valley on Thursday night, they’ll return home for a pivotal clash with the No. 3 ranked Michigan Wolverines amidst a seven-game win streak with potentially six pointspread covers in tow. Whether that intimidates Juwan Howard’s troops remains to be seen, but that’s highly unlikely considering the team didn’t skip a beat in its impressive comeback win over the Wisconsin Badgers off a 3+ week hiatus from the hardwood. Regardless of how the lone regular season skirmish between these hated rivals plays out at online sportsbooks, both programs will earn first round byes in the upcoming B1G Tournament. Still, you know darn well each will be going all-out to win the game; especially after the Buckeyes swept the rivalry a season ago and Ohio State logging four straight wins and covers versus Michigan on its home hardwood. ... 

Struggling bluebloods has been a theme for the 2020-21 college basketball betting season. The Kansas Jayhawks have no shot of winning the Big 12. The Kentucky Wildcats will need a miracle to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. March Madness could be without the North Carolina Tar Heels for the first time since 2010. Then there’s the unranked Duke Blue Devils who’ve struggled to the tune of an 8-8 overall record due to injuries, COVID and a major dose of inexperience. Coach K was already clamoring for the season to be cancelled only three weeks into it! Things don’t figure to get much better for the Dookies this weekend when the ACC leading Virginia Cavaliers pay Cameron Indoor a visit fresh off a skunking at the hands of the Florida State Seminoles on Big Monday. With Jalen Johnson putting an end to his Duke career earlier in the week, the Blue Devils are going to find themselves dogged at home for the first time since 2016! ... 

As hard it is to fathom, the Kentucky Wildcats likely won’t be heading to the NCAA Tournament once the middle of March rolls around. That is unless they somehow find a way to put it all together and win the SEC Tournament. Their odds of pulling off the feat currently check in at +5000 should you feel so inclined to wager on the unlikely scenario occurring at online sportsbooks. As for the No. 19 ranked Tennessee Volunteers, the luster off a hot start to the season has worn out in a big way. After dropping a non-competitive 78-65 decision at the LSU Tigers before taking South Carolina on Wednesday night, Rick Barnes’ troops are now attempting to fend off Florida, Ole Miss, Mizzou and Georgia for one of those highly clamored for double byes in the SEC tourney. Should it fall for the third time at home against the Wildcats, they can likely kiss their shot of locking one down goodbye. ... 

Fresh off a must-have win and cover against Oklahoma State on Big Monday, the unranked Kansas Jayhawks will travel to Ames in hopes of sweeping a two-game set against the Iowa State Cyclones after the teams just met in the Phog on Thursday night. It’s been a brutal campaign for the Clones who’ve managed just two wins through 14 played games and amassed a grand total of zero Big 12 wins through nine tries heading into the first game of this double-dip. ISU has however been competitive at online s... 

On the verge of being ousted from the Top-25, the Kansas Jayhawks need to start stringing wins together if Bill Self’s team is to be taken seriously as the month of March approaches. One of the reasons for KU’s fall from grace is tonight’s opponent; the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Cade Cunningham and his teammates upset Kansas back on January 12 when they fended off a furious Jayhawks comeback to log the 75-70 outright win and cover as 3.5-point home dogs. It was the fifth time in the Jayhawks last ... 

How crazy has the COVID marred college basketball betting season been to see the North Carolina Tar Heels and Duke Blue Devils unranked heading into the first of two scheduled regular season meetings on Saturday night? The year was 1950 the last time these hated rivals opposed one another off a loss and unranked for crying out loud! It’s hard to fathom, but neither of these programs will be making much of any noise come the Madness of March. Neither team is truly any good. That is unless either ...