(USA TODAY Sports)`Underdogs barked early Thursday, but favorites finished strong. By the end of today, the 64-team tournament field will be down to 32 as we head into the weekend. We have some of the best picks and tips of the day. Here’s a sports betting recap from Thursday and a lookahead to Friday.
Underdogs bark early
Underdogs came out barking, going 6-0 ATS. Despite the barks, only No. 10 seed Minnesota got outside of the fence with a 86-76 over No. 7 seed Louisville. The other five favorites still won outright to advance to Saturday’s round of 32.
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The closest we got to an early outright upset after Louisville was New Mexico State over Auburn. Bruce Pearl’s team went 12-for-31 from three, giving New Mexico State a chance to take down the No. 5 seed if only they could make free throws. Here’s how it happened:
Terrell Brown, who was 78% for the season, was 8-for-9 from the stripe leading up to the three foul shots. Brown went on to miss two of the final three free-throws, and Auburn escaped with a 78-77 win.
New Mexico State has lost 12 straight NCAA Tournament games.
Ja Morant lives up to the hype
Murray State and Florida continued to cover for underdog backers, but also provided additional outright upsets.
Ja Morant lived up to all of the hype, despite coming up significantly short of his 25.5 points prop in No. 12 seed Murray State’s 83-64 rout over No. 5 seed Marquette
Morant put up 17 points, 16 assists and 11 rebounds, making him only the 8th player to record a triple-double in the NCAA Tournament in the last 35 years and the first since Draymond Green in 2012.
His 16 assists were the 2nd most assists in an NCAA Tournament game.
Morant’s historical performance didn’t stop there. With the ball in his hand, Morant helped create 55 of Murray State’s points. That’s the most created points by an NCAA player in the last 10 seasons.
After the game, Marquette’s head coach Steve Wojciechowski, who played point guard at Duke, said Morant was the best guard he’s ever coached or played against.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi went as far as calling Morant “the Patrick Mahomes of college basketball.”
To end the night, favorites went 6-1 or 4-3 ATS depending on what number you got in the Villanova and Purdue games.
Villanova opened as 5.5-point favorites over St. Mary’s but closed at 3.5 by tip-off. Most St Mary’s backers got lucky when St Mary’s failed to foul in the final seconds of the game, losing 57-61. Nova backers who didn’t get the 3.5-point spread weren’t so fortunate.
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Rinse and repeat
16 teams are heading back to school today – doesn’t that sound depressing? By the end of the night, that number will be up to 32.
Friday’s games begin in the South Region, where the Cincinnati Bearcats (-4) take on the Iowa Hawkeyes (Over/Under 137.5). The Bearcats come in hot after winning the American Athletic Conference Tournament, and have the luxury of a short trip to Columbus, Ohio to try to extend their winning streak. The Bearcats are led by junior guard, Jarron Cumberland, who scored 33 points and grabbed 8 rebounds in Cincinnati’s 69-57 win over Houston last weekend.
Iowa will try to bounce back from a 20-point loss to Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament. To do so, they’ll rely heavily on juniors Tyler Cook (14.9 ppg) and Jordan Bohannon (11.3 ppg).
Cincinnati has four regular-season wins against tournament teams and showed their tenacity last weekend against Houston. The short drive certainly doesn’t hurt anything: Breakfast Pick: Cincinnati -4.
No. 3 seed Texas Tech and No. 14 seed North Kentucky tip off an hour and 15 minutes after Cincinnati-Iowa begins. Texas Tech tries to rebound from an early exit in the Big 12 Tournament thanks to a 74-79 loss to West Virginia, one of their worst losses of the season. Tech had won 8 of their previous 9 games leading up to that point.
Northern Kentucky hopes to serve the Red Raiders their second upset in as many weeks, after winning the Horizon League Tournament. Northern Kentucky had four players average double-digit points, including tournament MVP Drew McDonald (19 ppg, 9.5 reb) in their conference tournament run.
Points won’t come so easy against the best defense in the nation. Consistently slowing teams down throughout the season, Texas Tech ranks first in KenPom’ adjusted defense ratings. Their defense should be too much for Northern Kentucky to handle, but Tech’s offense is still a concern. Breakfast Pick: Under Northern Kentucky 61.5 points.
With half of first round games still to play, be sure to check out our breakdowns of each region and see how bettors are wagering on all these games and more with Thomas Casale’s NCAA Tournament action report. :
Betting Tips
It might be too late to fill out a bracket, but you can still take a roll at NCAA Tournament futures bets at FanDuel Sportsbook, PointsBet and DraftKings Sportsbook. But before you do that, you should find out why it might be better to rollover your bets instead of locking in big futures tickets.
From rollover betting vs futures markets to more first round upsets, we have you covered
Quick Links
The calm before the storm at Atlantic City sportsbooks.
Don’t forget to check out Casale’s NCAA Tournament breakdown.
Looking for college hoops podcasts? Here’s your playlist for the big dance.
Follow @RGSportsBetting on Twitter — we’ll be covering the tournament from various Atlantic City, N.J. sportsbooks.