College Basketball Handicapping Articles

College Basketball Futures Odds: Looking for a Winner from Average of Recent Champs
by Ivey Walters - 11/27/2014

With Kentucky looking absolutely unbeatable thus far, including a domination of No. 6 Kansas, 72-40, and outscoring their opponents by an average of 37 points, oddsmakers have made the Wildcats the clear-cut favorite to win it all in 2015. The media and the public are ready to give them the title already in November as they have an unbelievably talented roster that contains eight McDonald’s All-Americans.

NCAA Basketball Futures Odds: Two Huge Long Shots Worthy of Attention
by Ivey Walters - 11/27/2014

Since 2004, two extreme long shots have cashed in as the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champion. Ironically, both times it has been the Connecticut Huskies at 60-1 each season in 2011 and 2014. Both years, the Huskies rode on the heels of outstanding guard play and great coaching. In 2011, Kemba Walker singlehandedly put UConn on his back, making big shot after big shot in the NCAA Tournament. His playmaking ability allowed him to consistently get to the free throw line and distance the Huskies from their opponent, especially late in games.

College Basketball Handicapping: NCAA Teams Overrated and Underrated By Conference
by Trevor Whenham - 11/24/2014

One of the biggest challenges of betting on college basketball is that there are such a massive number of teams to follow and handicap. That also provides the biggest opportunity for smart bettors, too. So much of what public bettors base their decisions on is perception — the hype and coverage surrounding teams, players and coaches — or the lack thereof.

College Basketball Betting: Under-the-Radar Teams with Value
by Trevor Whenham - 11/20/2014

One of the biggest of the many joys of college basketball is the capability of teams to come from seemingly nowhere to shine. There are so many teams and so many leagues that no one but the most devoted follower can pay attention to everything. That means that teams can come from off the radar and, for those who are wise to them, deliver huge value for bettors. Now that we are into the new college basketball season, here is a look at seven teams that could be pleasant under-the-radar surprises this season:

College Basketball Handicapping: High-Profile Disappointments
by Trevor Whenham - 11/20/2014

Watching Kansas get completely manhandled by Kentucky on Tuesday night (when was the last time you saw a Top 5 team lose by 32 points?), I couldn’t help but think about ranked and hyped teams that may not be all that they were supposed to be. To be fair, though, I don’t want to be too negative about the Jayhawks. Sure, they got crushed, but they are young and raw, and we knew that. They also ran into an almost impossibly good team in Kentucky.

College Basketball Handicapping: Top NCAA Betting Games in November
by Trevor Whenham - 11/17/2014

It is a great time to be a college sports fan. College football is entering the final stretch. Perhaps even more exciting, college basketball is now underway. It could be that I am more excited than usual about the start of the hoops season because, as a diehard Michigan fan, the football season died for me weeks ago. Whatever the psychology behind it, the undisputed fact is that there is a lot of really good basketball coming up between now and the end of the month.

Expert College Basketball Handicapper Offers his One-of-a-Kind Cheat Sheet
by Allen Eastman - 11/13/2014

I am looking forward to the start of another successful college basketball campaign. The season starts this week, and I am ready for another great year. One of the things that I do before each season is compile information on every team that plays in a league that regularly has spreads on its games. I try to organize this info into a neat, orderly fashion that I can quickly check every day before making my selections. I’m going to share a big part of my research (but not all of it!) below.

2014 SEC Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 11/11/2014

The hype surrounding Kentucky heading into last season was comical. They were posted as the clear-cut favorite to cut down the nets in Arlington, and some idiots in the bobblehead media were having preseason discussions about whether or not Kentucky could go undefeated. It was asinine. And I was one of the only college basketball analysts in the country tabbing them as a sucker bet to win a national title.

College Basketball Handicapping: NCAA Preseason Rankings vs. National Title Odds
by George Monroy - 11/6/2014

The college basketball season is set to begin on Nov. 14 with the Top 7 teams in the preseason rankings all hosting tune-up games to open the year. This season should be a year of parity as there are no real powerhouses that stand out. There may be 10 to 12 excellent teams, with a couple probably following into the “elite” category, but even Kentucky, with its annual greatest-freshmen-class-ever hype is probably not as good as the media and sportsbooks will make them out to be.

2014 Pac-12 Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 11/4/2014

For the past several years I have been screaming to anyone who’ll listen that the Pac-12 has been woefully underrated on the national college hoops scene. It wasn’t a particularly novel plea; the East Coast Bias is a very real media phenomenon, and it only makes sense that it would extend to something like college basketball. But I felt like that bias was having a tangible effect on the league as schools were either snubbed by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee or were grossly underseeded when the brackets were announced.

2014 Big Ten Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 10/29/2014

The Big Ten can add as many teams as it likes – it’s not getting any better as a basketball conference. Maryland and Rutgers will be making their maiden voyages in the Big Ten this year, boosting the league’s total membership to 14 teams. However, both are expected to be bottom-tier finishers in the conference and will bring about the same amount of cache to the Big Ten as they have in football. (Which is to say: none.)

2014 ACC Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 10/29/2014

Despite its cumbersome construction, the ACC is becoming to college basketball what the SEC is to college football: the clear-cut No. 1 league in the land. The Tobacco Road Trio has joined forces with the upper crust of the old Big East to form another hoops mega-conference. And the battle for the league title will once again feature a who’s who of the sports elite players and coaches.

2014 Big 12 Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 10/29/2014

Spoiler alert: Kansas is going to win the Big 12 again this year. I’m not exactly going out on a limb with that college basketball prediction. The Jayhawks have won an astounding 10 straight Big 12 Championships and have dominated one of the premier college hoops conferences in the country. They are the definition of a powerhouse program, and it should be another banner year in Lawrence.

2014 Big East Predictions and College Basketball Betting Odds
by Robert Ferringo - 10/29/2014

The Real Big East, the conference that redefined and dominated college basketball for most of the past two decades, is dead. What remains is a 10-team Catholic League. It is a who’s who of teams that haven’t been relevant in the NCAA Tournament the last 25 years.

College Basketball National Championship Betting Odds: Best Bets
by Robert Ferringo - 10/20/2014

The Connecticut Huskies, a team that started the season outside the Top 15 with no national buzz, cut down the nets at AT&T Stadium in Arlington last April as the 2013-14 National Champions. They seemingly came out of nowhere, and at the start of last season absolutely no one saw UConn as a realistic title threat.

NCAA Basketball National Championship Futures Odds: Sucker Bets
by Robert Ferringo - 10/20/2014

There are two ways to peg the most overrated teams in college basketball at the beginning of the season. The first is the preseason Top 25, which is usually based more on rewarding flagship programs and glad-handing big-name coaches than it is an attempt to actually project the best 25 teams in the country.

2015 College Basketball National Championship Contenders with Futures Odds and Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 4/9/2014

The nets were just cut down to end the 2014 Final Four two days ago, so it is ridiculously early to be looking ahead to 2015. Players haven’t completely made their draft decisions yet, and we haven’t seen next year’s freshmen in action, so we are making a whole lot of guesses at this time when we look forward. Sportsbook.ag has posted futures odds, though, so it’s at least worth a look. Here is some of the interesting value — and bad ideas — that stand out for 2015 college basketball National Championship contenders:

NCAA Basketball Betting and Handicapping: Scouting the Week Ahead
by Alan Matthews - 3/11/2014

It's Championship Week, or whatever clever little moniker ESPN is using these days for conference tournament action. All the legitimate National Championship contenders are simply playing for seeding. It would appear that three of the top four seeds in the Big Dance are occupied by Florida, Wichita State and Arizona. The Shockers, shockingly, could be the No. 1 overall seed should the Gators lose early in the SEC Tournament. WSU is already through the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament with its unbeaten record intact.

2014 SEC Tournament Picks and College Basketball Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 3/10/2014

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: when it comes to college basketball the SEC is one hell of a football conference. Conference realignment has forced many conferences to be leaner and denser with quality college hoops action. The Big 12, Big East and the newly-formed American Athletic Conference are each perfect examples of the trend in action. However, the SEC appears to be regressing and is as bloated and sloppy as it has ever been.

2014 Big 12 Tournament Picks and College Basketball Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 3/10/2014

As many as eight of the 10 teams in the Big 12 Conference could find themselves in the NCAA Tournament next weekend. As such, this week’s Big 12 Tournament could be considered a preview of next week’s Big Dance rather than just a settling ground for a few regional scores.