Here we go folks, day 2 of the madness. The beauty of this tourney is the sheer volume of games, especially in the first 4 days.

Was yesterday a good betting day? No. Simple as that. But I am surprisingly not discouraged.

We lost a few pretty bad beats that we were in really good position to win (the Clemson/Mcneese Under being the worst), and a few of our underdog teams that we were hoping would cover just missed it by a point or two. But that’s the beauty of betting college basketball; these are just kids who sometimes lack maturity and composure, and they do a lot of things late in basketball games that you wouldn’t see the pros do. But man they are entertaining to watch as they give it their all for their schools.

A 2-6 day yesterday brings our total to 3-7. Let’s fire a lot of games today and try to claw our way closer to .500.

I said it at the beginning of the series: if we can go .500 betting the spreads in this tournament, I would absolutely take that. Managing expectations when betting the big dance is crucial, there is just so much madness that numbers and preparation kind’ve get thrown out the window.

With that being said, let’s regroup and turn to the trends that we can follow and make some bets!

• Mississippi State -1.5 vs Baylor. Miss st. is battle tested from the SEC all year and frankly just a better roster.
• Alabama -21.5 vs Robert Morris. I think Bama can basically pick their number in this one. It makes to be a super high scoring affair and we just hope that they don’t sub their starters out early enough to screw us on the 22+ point margin.
• Memphis +1.5 vs Colorado State. Everyone and their dog is betting Colorado in this one and I will agree that it is for good reason. Memphis has injury issues with their starting point guard being out, but I still think Penny Hardaway and his squad will figure out a way to get it done playing into the disrespect of being the underdog whilst being the 5 seed. There’s just too much value.
• St Mary’s -4.5 vs Vanderbilt. Saint Mary’s isn’t getting as much respect as they deserve in this tournament and I think it shows with this line. They do play in a weaker conference but they’ve beaten Gonzaga multiple times this year and we saw yesterday what the zags can do.
• North Carolina FIRST HALF SPREAD -0.5 vs Ole Miss. I’m not sure if UNC will win the game. They are favorited coming off of their “first four” win, and historically at least 1 “first four” does move on to round 2. Either way, I just feel more comfortable taking them to ride the momentum and win the first half.
• Maryland -10.5 vs Grand Canyon. This one is tricky because GCU is a veteran team that has come into the tourney before and made waves. However, I think Maryland is just too strong to keep this one close the entire 40 mins.
• Kentucky -11.5 vs Troy. The public likes an upset here (maybe it just because they’re thinking of a handsome Brad Pitt in the movie Troy idk). But I like the value of 11.5 here. Kentucky is super inconsistent and I think it’s either boom or bust. If they win, I like a blowout…. but they could also lose so be cautious. LOL.
• Marquette -3.5 vs New Mexico. Marquette has not been playing well lately, but at one point they were well inside the nation’s top 25. I think there is just too much value in this small line of 3.5 to not take the Golden Eagles.
• Arizona vs Akron over 167.5. Is this the biggest over/under line of the day? Yes. Are we still smashing the over? Yes. These two teams play a very similar style. Up tempo and lots of scoring. We’re going to need them to be hitting shots, but what fun is rooting for the under right?
• Oklahoma +5.5 vs UConn. I don’t like betting against Dan Hurley and the two-time reigning champs, and they might make me regret it. But Oklahoma is a really strong team and I think giving them 5 points is just a little too much. I do like UConn to win, but we’re hoping for that sweet spot of less than 6.
• Liberty +6.5 vs Oregon. This game feels a bit like a home game for Oregon which is scary, but Liberty has not gotten blown out all year. They’ve lost 6 games and 5 of them were by 5 or less. So how can we take them to lose by 7 or more?

That’s it for today folks. Best of luck to us and hopefully a better day today!

-E