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Looking for some of the more informative March Madness coverage for 2008? You came to the right place. Below we will be adding numerous articles about the 2008 March Madness as well as March Madness betting information.
March Madness is the biggest betting event of the year. It even tops the Super Bowl as far as total handle for sports books in Las Vegas and around the globe. The 2008 March Madness will be the biggest ever and we hope you enjoy all the updated content we have to offer.
Here are just some of the topics we will be covering for March Madness 2008
March Madness Odds
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March Madness Betting
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Three Keys for Final Four Teams
by Trevor Whenham - 04/05/2008
In the continued quest to find something to differentiate these four teams left in the Final Four and find winners for the next three games, it's time now to take a look at three teams and to isolate three keys for each team if they want to live up to their potential and win it all.
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Strengths and Weaknesses Of Final Four Squads
by Trevor Whenham - 04/05/2008
Frankly, I'm not that sad that we have never had a Final Four full of nothing but No. 1 seeds before now - this is way too much work. In most years you can easily argue that there is a team or two that has done well to get where they are but which is not very likely to keep going (Yes, I am talking about you, George Mason). This year, though, we have four teams that were mostly dominant through the season, and have shown signs of being all but unbeatable at times during the tournament. It's not that hard to close your eyes and imagine a way in which each of these teams could be cutting down the nets next Monday night.
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Role Players Will Decide National Champion
by Robert Ferringo - 04/04/2008
All this week ESPN has been re-running recent NCAA Championship Games. And, since I haven't been doing much other than changing diapers and watching baseball during the day I found myself rewatching some sweet games. As I observed these teams - specifically Connecticut in 1999, Michigan State in 2000, and Syracuse in 2003 - the thing that stuck out to me is how even though the money men all showed up and played fantastic championship games it was the way that the game was determined in the fringes by the role players on each eventual title team.
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Handicapping the Final Four Games
by Trevor Whenham - 04/04/2008
It has been an odd tournament. Some games have been ridiculously close, while others have been one-sided from the start. Unfortunately, the latter has been more the rule over the last two rounds. Of the last 10 or so games, only two have been interesting right down to the closing seconds. More often, one team has been decidedly better than the other, and they have proven that with an exclamation point. With any luck that somewhat boring trend should change this week. The four teams remaining are undoubtedly the four best in the country, and they are all reasonably healthy and playing about as well as they can. That means that we could have two games on Saturday that are both classics. Here's a look at how they might play out.
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Memphis Underrated Heading Into Sweet 16
by Trevor Whenham - 03/25/2008
Two games into the NCAA Tournament and all four No. 1 seeds are still standing. North Carolina has rampaged through their games like Godzilla through Tokyo. Kansas has been only slightly less impressive. UCLA has won despite some concerning injury problems. And then there is Memphis. The Tigers also have two wins, but they haven't really dealt a knockout blow to either of their opponents, and they have given their critics all sorts of reasons to loudly doubt them. UNC and Kansas have covered both of their tournament games and UCLA is 1-1 ATS, but Memphis hasn't managed a cover yet. The question is, then, if Memphis is in real trouble and if, as it seems to many, they are really in danger of going down early.
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How Does Playing Close to Home Affect Tourney Teams?
by Trevor Whenham - 03/25/2008
A lot is being made this year of the teams that get to play their tournament games in their home state. Davidson scored two big upsets in Raleigh in their home state of North Carolina. The Tar Heels played their first two in Raleigh, and now only have to move down the road to Charlotte for their next two. UCLA won their first two in Anaheim while sleeping in their own beds. Texas plays their next two games in Houston, and would get to play in San Antonio if they made it as far as the Final Four.
Read more about Close to Home.
NCAA Tournament Betting Trends
by Trevor Whenham - 03/25/2008
We have a few days to sit back and breathe after four intense days of college basketball before we have to get ready for four more days. This is a great opportunity to look back at what has happened already. By knowing what has happened we stand a better chance of avoiding costly mistakes in the next two rounds. Here, then, is a look back at the betting trends that have emerged in the first two rounds of this tournament.
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March Madness: West Regional Preview
by Robert Ferringo - 03/19/2008
Twice denied by the eventual-champion Florida Gators, the Bruins are primed to end the frustration. UCLA was the best team in the best conference in the country, overcoming injuries along the way to posting one of the most impressive resumes in the nation. I believe that the main thing UCLA brings to the table is experience, even though their best player, forward Kevin Love, is a freshman. The Bruins are No. 10 in the nation in scoring defense and No. 26 in the country in field goal offense. That's a winning combo. They are just 6-5 ATS in the past two tournaments so there isn't a ton of value there. But if you're looking for a futures bet, they have one of the easiest roads to the Final Four you will find.
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March Madness: Midwest Regional Preview
by Robert Ferringo - 03/19/2008
Kansas. They are the Jessica Simpson of the NCAA Tournament: they have a $1 million body and a 10-cent head. The Jayhawks are a complete team, getting balanced scoring from a group of players stacked with talented upperclassmen. The core is back from an Elite Eight team from 2007 and they were the preseason favorite to cut down the nets. I think a lot of this falls back on Bill Self. He has proven time and time again that he cannot win the big game, and if he can't at least make the Final Four with this squad I bet the rumors will start swirling.
Read more about Midwest Regional Preview.
NCAA Tournament Seed History
by Josh Nagel - 03/19/2008
As you try to come up with a magical formula for picking winners in the NCAA Tournament - and it's difficult to come up with one that works - it helps to look back at the history of the teams involved and their seeds.
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March Madness Ideas
by Trevor Whenham - 03/19/2008
The tournament is just around the corner. Finally. It seems like it has taken forever to get here. If you are anything more than a casual sports fan then you will almost certainly agree that the NCAA tournament is as close to a perfect sporting event as anything that happens. The format is perfect and it just drips with passion and excitement every single year. To enjoy the tournament all you really need to do is fill out a bracket or two, find a couch and a TV, maybe grab a beer or two, and enjoy the craziness. If that's not enough for you, though, there are always other things you can do to make the tournament even more fun. Here are some March Madness ideas to ratchet up the excitement even more:
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Definition of March Madness - Explanation of March Madness
by Trevor Whenham - 03/19/2008
Everywhere you turn these days the only thing every sports fan is talking about is March Madness. All of those sports fans know what is going on, but for some people what is missing in all the talk is a definition of March Madness. If the whole crazy phenomenon is new to you then an explanation of March Madness would probably be much appreciated. For those people, then, here is a crash course - the quintessential look at a definition of March Madness.
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March Madness Winners
by Trevor Whenham - 03/19/2008
One of the best ways to learn to make good NCAA Tournament selections is to look to the past. The teams and players are different every year, but history does tend to repeat itself, and teams that have won it all in the past have a lot of things in common. That only makes sense - to win the tournament teams have to be able to survive six games against a variety of competition, so it takes certain things to make that work - size, depth and experience, for example. The tournament expanded to its current 64-team format (I'm ignoring the play-in game because it is too silly to deserve consideration) in 1985.
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T.O.'s Most Overrated Tournament Teams
by Trevor Whenham - 03/19/2008
When I am not writing for this Doc's Sports I spend all of my time reading the other stuff on this site. What else would I do? Robert weighed in with his most overrated teams in the tournament the other day. I agreed with some of his list but not others, so I thought that I would weigh in with a list of my own. Mostly, I just like being nasty to the teams that I hate. Here, then, are the five teams that are getting way too much credit in my eyes:
Read more about Overrated Tourney Teams.
March Madness: South Regional Preview
by Robert Ferringo - 03/19/2008
The Tigers were the best team in the country for the overwhelming majority of the regular season and, in my mind, is still the most complete and cohesive unit in the nation. They have a big-time coach in John Calipari, a first-team All-American and legit go-to guy in Chris Douglas-Roberts, tournament experience up and down the roster, and a flashy and talented freshman point guard running the show. What's not to like?
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Don't Make These Mistakes When Filling Out Your Bracket
by Trevor Whenham - 03/19/2008
Filling out a winning March Madness bracket or making winning bets on the tournament is as much about avoiding mistakes as anything else. There is so much coverage of the tournament, and so much readily available conflicting information, that it can be easy to believe that things will happen when they most likely won't. By now you have probably read a million different articles about how to make your NCAA Tournament picks in general, but I figure that it is time to look at the actual bracket to see what traps are sitting there just waiting to suck us in.
Read more about NCAA Bracket Mistakes.
Potential NCAA Tournament 'Cinderellas'
by Trevor Whenham - 03/19/2008
Nothing captures the imagination of casual sports bettors more than an NCAA Tournament 'Cinderella'. We all love an underdog, and every year people throw millions of dollars away trying to pick which obscure team is going to shock the world and go deep. The obsession has grown dramatically ever since George Mason made their improbable run to the Final Four. Smart bettors know that chasing the longshots is mostly a sucker's bet, but it's still fun to look for them. There are serious bragging rights on the line if you call an upset before it happens, so it's seductive to try to sniff them out. Now, I don't really think that this is going to be a tournament full of big upsets - more like 2007 than 2006. Still, here are five double-digit seeds that stand the best chances of making some noise:
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NCAA Tournament Facts
by Josh Nagel - 03/19/2008
From the opening tip Thursday morning to the ubiquitous sign-off to the college basketball season with the playing of the sports ballad "One Shining Moment," March Madness is about to hit full throttle as the NCAA Tournament dominates the sports landscape for the next two weeks.
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Easiest Tournament Draws
by Trevor Whenham - 03/18/2008
There's no such thing as an easy draw in the NCAA Tournament. Even the worst team in the tournament is better than average, and the demands and scrutiny of the format make it an incredibly challenging thing to win. That being said, some teams definitely have an easier road ahead of them than others. Here are the five contenders with the easiest road to the Elite Eight:
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Who Will Win the NCAA Basketball Tournament?
by Robert Ferringo - 03/18/2008
Right now opinions about who will win the NCAA Tournament are like hookers popping up on daytime talk shows and nighttime news outlets: not hard to come by. (And yes, that pun was intended.) Everyone has an opinion and as it stands right now everyone is an expert. Which makes sense, because right now there are 65 teams from the lower 48 states that are all poised to be national champions. But the Big Dance is actually a sadistic, twisted, unrelenting three-week buzz saw of reality that viscously shreds hopes, dreams, and potential.
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NCAA Tournament Bracket Tips
by Robert Ferringo - 03/18/2008
Just about any honest, red-blooded American knows of or has participated in an NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament pool. However, just because people have taken the time to write school names on paper that does not mean that they know how to fill out your NCAA Tournament bracket.
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Toughest Tournament Draws
by Trevor Whenham - 03/18/2008
All tournament draws are not created equal. Some teams have a line up of relatively easy teams to face, while others have to go from one hard team to the other. Here, in my view, are the five teams with the hardest road to travel. To keep it meaningful, I will only look at teams in the top eight seeds and only at teams that can be viewed as legitimate contenders.
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NCAA Basketball Tournament Seeds Success
by Trevor Whenham - 03/18/2008
People can't get too concerned about the seed a team is given when they are handicapping the NCAA Tournament and not pay attention to the teams themselves. After all, a lousy team is still lousy regardless of the number beside its name. That being said, there is some obvious merit in looking at how different seeds have performed historically so that you can avoid making costly mistakes. With that in mind, here are some of the more interesting situations that come up when you study NCAA Basketball Tournament Seeds Success:
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Seven Overrated Teams Headed Into the Tourney
by Robert Ferringo - 03/17/2008
So I'm watching countless hours of "Bracketology" - or, as it should more aptly be referred to: Babblology - on ESPN the night that the seeds for the NCAA Tournament were announced. Now, these guys are paid as experts. This is their chosen profession and the issue that they spend supposedly countless hours watching and analyzing. Yet, when it came time for each of the analysts: Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps, Hubert Davis and Dick Vitale to fill out their "virtual brackets" the four of them, collectively, threw up the most chalk, safe, garbage Final Four picks that you could imagine. I believe that two of them - including one of the few analysts I respect, Jay Bilas - actually had all four No. 1 seeds advancing to San Antonio for the Final Four.
Read more about Overrated Tourney Teams.
Final Four Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 03/17/2008
The bracket has only been out for a couple of hours, but it is never too early to take a shot at figuring out the Final Four. If this year is like the last dozen or more then I will change my opinion a million times between now and the first tip on Thursday (I prefer to think of it as refining my opinion than changing it), but these are my Final Four picks as of here and now.
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NCAA Basketball Tournament Tidbits
by Trevor Whenham - 03/17/2008
There is so much tournament information floating around that I feel like I could get buried in it all. Some of it is truly helpful, and some of it is completely useless. I'll let you decide for yourself if this stuff matters or not, but here is a collection of some of the more interesting NCAA Basketball Tournament tidbits that I have uncovered in the last few days:
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Handicapping the NIT
by Trevor Whenham - 03/17/2008
It's tournament time, and a lot of people forget that there is more than one tournament left to play. In fact, there are three this year. The NCAA Tournament is obviously the biggest and the best, but the NIT is actually a year older than the big dance - 1938 versus 1939.
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Handicapping the CBI
by Trevor Whenham - 03/17/2008
For the last several years, everyone has gone crazy over the NCAA Tournament, and completely ignored the NIT. For some reason, the Gazelle Group, the event organizers that bring us preseason tournaments like the CBE Classic and the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, have decided that what the world really needs is another postseason tournament that no one cares about. To that end, they have created the College Basketball Invitational. This is a place for 16 more teams that wish they were in the real tournament to keep playing a little while longer.
Read more about Handicapping the CBI.
The Lowdown on Early Automatic Bids
by Robert Ferringo - 03/12/2008
It's March. Madness. Mayhem. Mania. Monomania. Mob scene. Say what you will about this month, it's truly a dizzying exercise in gambling acumen. And the only way to keep your head above water is to do your homework, not listen to anyone who hasn't mentioned anything pertaining to college basketball prior to Valentine's Day, and catch a break or two.
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Scrutinizing the Top Seeds
by Trevor Whenham - 03/12/2008
I was just staring at my March Madness bracket for the 100th time, looking at how the automatic bids that have been claimed will impact things, and which teams are stuck on an increasingly pessimistic bubble. The teams that will end up as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds obviously aren't in any danger of not making the tournament, or even of dropping down in seeds in most cases. Is it just me, though, or is this a particularly hard group of elite teams to get a feeling about? Any one of the likely top eight - UNC, UCLA, Memphis, Tennessee, Georgetown, Kansas, Texas and Duke - could win it all without shocking the world, but all of them have big questions that can raise concerns. Maybe I'm just a pessimist, but I'm not completely in love with any of these teams.
Read more about March Madness Top Seeds.
Conference Tournament Teams and Motivation
by Trevor Whenham - 03/12/2008
We are in the heart of Championship Week, and everywhere you turn there is another tournament game. Handicapping these tournaments can be a real challenge. That, of course, is true for every college basketball game, but it can be especially true in conference tournaments because teams have different motivations for the tournament. Teams that have struggled all year know that they probably won't win, so they might just be looking to end the season. Teams on the bubble, or those that feel like they are competitive, could step their games up in order to get a chance to dance. Teams that have their tournament bids and seedings basically locked up may not be as focused or hungry as they could or should be. Trying to get into the minds of teams can be very challenging and time consuming.
Read more about Conference Tournament Motivation.
Lessons From Last Year's Elite Eight
by Trevor Whenham - 03/12/2008
You know all the clichés - history repeats itself, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, and all the rest. When it comes to March Madness those clichés create a problem - they are true, but only partly. You need to be very aware of what has happened in the past so that you can avoid costly mistakes. But if you assume that what happened in the past will definitely happen again then you are going to go broke. With that in mind, I offer this article with a warning - learn from it, but don't assume that this year will be the same.
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March Madness Brackets Strategy
by Josh Nagel - 03/10/2008
There are some basic principles regarding the NCAA Tournament that can help the fortunes of every bettor, from the office-pool novice to the sharp futures prognosticator looking for a big score.
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Handicapping College Conference Tournaments
by Trevor Whenham - 03/06/2008
March Madness is just around the corner, but there is a lot of basketball to be played between now and then. Every conference except for the snooty Ivy still has a conference tournament left to play. For the lesser conferences winning that tournament is the only way to get into the big dance. For bigger conferences it's the last chance to prove that you are worthy of an at-large bid. Whatever the case, the conference tournaments are different than normal games, and they require a different betting approach to be successful. Here are seven things you need to keep in mind to bet and win:
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Louisville Set for Big Tourney Run
by Trevor Whenham - 03/06/2008
I'll say this right off the top - I'm going to fill in a lot of March Madness brackets this year as every year, and Louisville is going to go deep in most of them. There are teams that are more talented or have been more consistent throughout the season, but there are none that are playing as well as the Cardinals, and few that could match up to them when they are at their best.
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How to Handicap Bubble Teams
by Trevor Whenham - 03/05/2008
As the college basketball season draws to a close and the conference tournaments get underway, with the Big Dance ever closer to tip-off, the sports nation's eyes are pointed towards bubble teams. The tournament is a brilliant marketing success on so many levels, and one is that the public has a seemingly endless fascination over which teams are going to make it into the bracket, and which ones are going to end up somewhere far less prestigious. As with anything else that the public is interested in, college basketball handicappers need to pay special attention to bubble teams and the ways to bet on them to make sure that they aren't falling into traps that could damage their bankroll.
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March Madness History
by Matt Foust - 02/27/2008
In 1891, when Dr. James Naismith first conceived the game of basketball, it's certain that he had no idea what kind of cultural phenomenon his invention would become. However, he probably started to have an inkling of a revelation when he handed Long Island University the second National Invitation Tournament trophy in 1939. Still, Dr. Naismith only lived long enough to see a glimpse of what has now become one the greatest annual sporting events in this nation's or any nation's history - March Madness. The following is a brief rundown of March Madness history.
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Bubble Watch: Florida and Ohio State
by Max Powers, Senior Handicapper - 02/27/2008
It was less then a year ago that these two teams were battling for the NCAA Championship in Atlanta. Florida dominated most of the game as their veteran leadership proved to be too much for the young upstart Buckeyes, led by two freshmen, Greg Oden and Mike Conley. The Gators won the game by nine points and thus completed back-to-back NCAA Championships for the first time since Duke did it in the early 90s. A team that reaches the championship can pretty much be assured a place in next year's NCAA Tournament field, but that is not the case with these two squads, as both sit clearly on the bubble. The following will examine their resumes and compare and contrast the likelihood that either could reach the Final Four yet again.
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Tennessee Vols Earning Potential No. 1 Seed
by Trevor Whenham - 02/27/2008
Tennessee had the perfect situation on Saturday night - a nationally televised game against a hated in-state rival with the No. 1 ranking in the country on the line. They took advantage of it as well as they possibly could have. Memphis, the home team, and undefeated No. 1 team to boot, was favored by six points or more, but Tennessee was able to keep it close in the first half and pull away late as the Tigers went ice cold with their shooting. With the win, the Volunteers became, like Memphis before them, the unanimous top team in the country. There is little question that they deserve that position. The question is how well that ranking sets them up down the stretch of the season, into the SEC tournament, and, by far most importantly, into the NCAA Tournament.
Read more about Tennessee Vols.
Best Sports Book to Watch March Madness
by Trevor Whenham - 02/22/2008
March Madness is the best time of the year, and a sports book in Las Vegas is the best place (outside of a host arena) to watch it. On tournament days the books fill up early, and they are absolutely buzzing with passion, tension, and raw excitement. Just think of everything that the tournament makes you feel and then multiply it by the hundreds of people who are there and you have the ingredients for a perfect day. I don't get to Vegas as often as I wish I did, but when I do I definitely have some favorite sports books that I have to visit. This, in no particular order, is my list of the best sports books to watch March Madness, or anything else for that matter:
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