against the spread
Duke vs Louisville Free Pick
Duke Basketball
Tonight’s Elite Eight matchup has the feel of a Final Four or even NCAA Championship matchup. The Duke Blue Devils, one of the country’s perennials powerhouses takes on the Louisville Cardinals, the No. 1 seed in the tournament. Win and you make the Final Four, lose and you go home to ask yourself what went wrong.
Duke enters the game with an overall record of 30-5 straight up and 19-16 against the spread. Louisville has an overall record of 32-5 straight up and 22-14-1 against the spread. The Cardinals enter this game riding an impressive 13-game winning streak. › Continue reading
Marquette versus Syracuse
Syracuse Basketball
Elite Eight. Saturday March 30, 2013 – This game features the Syracuse Orangemen vs. the Marquette Golden Eagles. These are two good teams with great coaches. Both teams will be considered by experts to be overachievers this season. The line on this game is Syracuse -4.5 and the total is set at 127.5.
Looking at the combined season record we see that the teams are very similar in that regard. Syracuse is 29-9 SU and 18-15-1 ATS. Marquette is 26-8 SU and 15-15 ATS. Statistically the edge goes to Syracuse. They average 72 points per game on offense and allow 59 on defense. Marquette averages 69 PPG on offense and allows 62 PPG on defense. That makes for basically a four point advantage on a neutral court, which is exactly the scenario we have. › Continue reading
Duke vs. Creighton Pick
Tonight at 9:40 pm EST Duke takes on Creighton for the second round (they are calling it the third round) of the NCAA Tourney. Oddsmakers have Duke favored by 5.5 points.
Duke comes into this game off their not so impressive win vs. Albany NY. Duke won by 12 points 73-61. Mind you they were favored by 20 in that game. Duke is juts 2-4 ATS in their last 6 games. So they are not playing the most “lights out” basketball right now.
Creighton defeated Cincinnati by 4 points in the last round and were favored by 3 so it was a good win and cover. Creighton is a solid basketball team this season. They are 28-7 SU and 18-14-1 ATS. They average 75 points per game on offense and allow just 63. As a matter of fact they match up pretty evenly with the Duke team. › Continue reading
Oregon vs St. Louis NCAA Tournament
On Saturday March 23, 2013 the Oregon Ducks face the St. Louis Billikens in both teams second round of play. The Oddsmakers have St. Louis as -3.5 favorites in this game.
In their last game St. Louis easily defeated the New Mexico State team by 20 points to advance. They were favored by 9.5 points in that game and the final score was 64-44. The points allowed was well below the average that they allow which was 57.7 during the regular season. St. Louis comes in with a 28-6 SU and is 22-10 ATS.
Oregon is really playing well right now. After having won the Pac-12 conference tourney against UCLA they defeated a very good Oklahoma State team by 13 points. Oregon was actually 3 point underdogs in that game. Oregon is 27-8 SU and 14-17-2 ATS. They average 71 PPG on offense and allow 63. › Continue reading
Indiana vs. Wisconsin Free Basketball Pick
Indiana vs. Wisconsin 1:40 PM EST
Big Ten Tournament, Chicago, Illinois
#22 ranked Wisconsin will take on #3 ranked Indiana today at 1:40 pm EST. Wisconsin is coming off a major victory against Michigan in the tournament. Indiana is coming off what appeared to be an easy win against Illinois. Wisconsin is 22-10 SU and 13-17 ATS. Indy is 27-5 SU and 17-13 ATS. Oddsmakers have Indiana favored in this matchup by 6.5 points.
Indiana has been the Juggernaut much of the season holding the number 1 ranking longer than any other school. But it has been a “merry go round” when it comes to rankings and who is number one. Indiana is widely considered the best team in the country. With that said, the Big Tn Conference is the best conference in the country and most any team can knock off the other at any given time. › Continue reading
West Virginia vs Texas Tech Quick Pick
At 7:00 PM ET tonight the Texas Tech red Raiders and facing off against the Mountaineers of West Virginia University. Oddsmakers have this one as WVU favored by 8.5. There has been a tiny amount of line movement bouncing back between 8.5 and 8 even. Especially at Legends Sportsbook.
When previewing these teams one has to look at their records first. Both teams have had a miserable season. West Virginia is 13-18 SU and 10-18-1 ATS. Texas Tech is 10-19 SU and 9-13 ATS. Head to head West Virginia won both contests. They won one by 16 points at Lubbock and the other by just 2 points in Morgantown. › Continue reading
Gonzaga vs. St. Mary’s Free basketball Pick
Tonight’s matchup between St. Mary’s and Gonzaga is an interesting one to say the least. You have the #1 team in the country, Gonzaga, vs. a team with a great record that is unranked and is in the same conference. In fact, two of St. Mary’s only 5 losses came against this Gonzaga team; one was by 5 points and the other by 17. Other than Gonzaga, St. Mary’s has lost to Pacific, Northern Iowa and Georgia Tech. They have virtually no impressive wins on their schedule except maybe the win at BYU. That is a borderline impressive victory. All of their games have been against the west coast teams that don’t do well against the big conferences. The other wins are against Ivy league schools and I don’t need to elaborate why those are unimpressive.
Gonzaga has victories against West Va., Clemson, Oklahoma, Kansas State and Baylor. They deserve to be #1 having played and won so many out of conference games. Their big man Kelly Olynyk scores 17 points per game and they will need him tonight in full force to beat a very motivated St. Mary’s team. I think St. Mary’s feels like they are the younger brother that is good but always gets beat by big brother. They think tonight will be their big chance. This is St. Mary’s chance to do something for their program. › Continue reading
Here Comes the Madness
The top-seed rank in the NCAA seems to be on a conveyor belt with different teams getting to enjoy the status for a few weeks before another team takes over and so on and so forth.
This tells us that no team is that sure to cop the national title. But as usual, there will always be those teams that are considered the favorites to win it.
And then there are those teams that are just playing the remaining games of their season with no legitimate shot at entering the tournament, but have been rewarding bettors with handsome dividends when it comes to betting on the spreads. › Continue reading
Florida at Kentucky Free Pick
Saturday March 9 2013 at 12:00 noon EST the University of Florida Gators are in Lexington to take on the Wildcats of Kentucky. The line has not been created as of the writing of this article but we are guessing the line will be somewhere around Florida -8.
This is the last game for both teams before the start of the conference tourney and the official start to what people refer to as “March Madness”. The Gators come into this game with a healthy 24-5 record overall and are 15-11 ATS. On the road this season the Gators have been decent with a 7-5 record ATS. The Gators have won three of their last four games including easy wins against Vandy, Bama and Arkansas. Their loss was against Tennessee. › Continue reading
Georgetown vs Villanova Free Pick
The end is in sight, the Big East Conference regular season ends this weekend and teams are fighting for higher seeds, as they approach the conference championship. Georgetown is currently in first place by a half game in the Big East with an overall record of 23-4 straight up and 14-9 against the spread.
The Hoyas have 13-3 losses in conference play. After tonight’s game, the Hoyas end their Big East regular season against Syracuse on Saturday. If Georgetown can win their two remaining games, they will be the conference regular season champion. › Continue reading