2014 NCAA Tournament Handicapping: Best Value Bets
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2014

When it comes to March Madness, there are brackets and there is betting, and smart bettors realize that the two things are very different. When you are picking your brackets, you are looking for teams that you think have a good chance to win it all or at least to make a deep run. When you are betting tournament futures, on the other hand, you are looking for teams that could win, but more importantly, you are looking for situations in which the chances of a team winning are better than the odds suggest.

2014 NCAA Tournament Handicapping for Dangerous Lower Seeds
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2014

It’s not hard to think of lower seeds that have become legends for the damage they have done over the years. There was Gonzaga back in the day. Or George Mason. Davidson. Butler. VCU. Wichita State. The list goes on and on. All of these teams went much further than anyone could have expected, but they were able to do it because they were talented, feisty and lucky — a potent combination at tournament time. The tournament wouldn’t be the tournament without teams like that. Here are my 2014 NCAA Tournament picks for four that could potentially fill that role this year.

NCAA Tournament Facts and Interesting Information
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2014

There are approximately 147,573,952,589,676,412,928 different possible brackets with a 68-team field. Only one will be correct. Warren Buffett has grabbed a lot of headlines for underwriting a $1 billion prize for a perfect bracket this year, but given the odds against it, it’s the safest bet anyone has ever made. If every person on the planet were to fill out a random bracket, the odds would still be way over a billion to one against a perfect bracket. Buffett hasn’t disclosed how much he is being paid to insure the payout, but he is basically stealing whatever amount it is.

March Madness Bracket Trends: Handicapping No. 1 seeds
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2014

The brackets are set, and now all we can do is wait for the dance to get started. Counting seconds that never seem to pass. All we can do now is analyze some March Madness bracket trends, handicapping No.1 seeds and their chances of making it to Houston where their seed indicates they belong.

2014 March Madness Handicapping: Possible Sweet 16 Surprises
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2014

There aren’t more than four people on his planet that really, truly believed that Florida Gulf Coast was capable of making the Sweet 16 last year, yet there they were. And so was No. 13 La Salle. And No 12 Oregon. And No. 9 Wichita State, for that matter. All teams that few expected realistically to make it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

2014 March Madness Handicapping: No. 5 vs. No. 12 Seeds
by George Monroy - 3/18/2014

One of the reasons that the NCAA Tournament is such a huge, national event amongst sports and non-sports fans alike is because of the upsets. As much as fans love a dominant winner, rooting for an underdog making an unlikely playoff run is one of the most exciting things in sports. And year in and year out March Madness is one of the best venues for upsets to happen simply because navigating a single-elimination tournament on the way to a championship is the most difficult thing to accomplish in sports.

2014 NCAA Tournament Bracket Advice: Hardest March Madness Draws
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2014

Not all paths to the Final Four are created equally. Some high seeds are blessed by the college basketball gods, or the selection committee, with a relatively easy path through the tournament. They are clearly better than their opponents, the matchups are reasonable, and they obviously control their own destinies. That doesn’t mean that they will succeed, but they are certainly more likely to.

2014 NIT Bracket Picks and Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2014

The NCAA Tournament gets all the glory, but it isn’t the only show in town. The NIT used to matter a whole lot more than it does, but it still provides some great action every year, and there is nothing wrong with basketball at Madison Square Garden. It provides yet more opportunities to bet on great elimination action in March.

Duke Blue Devils Odds to Win 2014 NCAA Tournament with Picks and Predictions
by George Monroy - 3/14/2014

The Duke Blue Devils finished the college basketball regular season as the No. 7 team in the AP Top 25 and third in the ACC standings behind Virginia and Syracuse, even though they were a ranked higher than either squad. Duke lost five conference games, including a matchup against Wake Forest late in the season that pushed the team down the AP rankings from the fourth to the seventh spot.

Louisville Cardinals Odds to Win 2014 NCAA Tournament with Picks and Predictions
by George Monroy - 3/14/2014

The No. 5 Louisville Cardinals are set to defend last season’s national title and will look to become the first team to win consecutive championships since Billy Donovan’s 2006 and 2007 Florida squads completed the feat nearly seven years ago. Louisville ended the regular season by beating three of the four AP Top 25 teams it faced during the final two weeks of the year and clinched a share of the AAC title with the No. 13 Cincinnati Bearcats.

Michigan State Spartans Odds to Win 2014 NCAA Tournament with Picks and Predictions
by George Monroy - 3/12/2014

Early in the year the Michigan State Spartans were on the short list of contenders with a legitimate shot at winning this year’s NCAA Tournament. Multiple injures to Michigan State’s best players, however, kept the team from reaching its full potential during the regular season and pushed it from the top of the AP Top 25 poll to the bottom by the year’s end.

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

This league has cannibalized itself for the past two months, and no true powerhouse has yet to emerge from the Midwest. However, one way or another someone is about to catch fire and cut down the nets in Indianapolis this weekend. And you can bet that whichever school emerges will be vaulted into the national spotlight heading into next week’s NCAA Tournament.

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

Perhaps no conference in the country, save the American Athletic, is as fundamentally disparate as the ACC this year. This conference is a clear case of the basketball haves and have nots, and it has made for some ugly hoops this year in one of the nation’s most prestigious conferences.

Sports Betting Insights: Betting on College Basketball Conference Tournaments Part 2
by Dave Schwab - 3/12/2014

Championship Week in men’s college basketball really starts to heat up this weekend with the later rounds of all the major conference tournaments. Last week I went with BYU in the West Coast Conference and Murray State, out of the Ohio Valley as my top two picks based on BetOnline’s futures odds to win their respective tournament. The Cougars came up short in an 11-point loss to Gonzaga in the WCC Finals, and the Racers never made it past the semifinals as the No. 2 seed in their tournament.

2014 AAC Tournament Picks and College Basketball Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 3/11/2014

There wasn’t a more lopsided league in the country than the American Athletic Conference this season. The top five teams in the league went 66-24 in conference play, and the bottom five teams combined for just four wins against the top-tier teams in the AAC this year.

2014 Big East Tournament Picks and College Basketball Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 3/11/2014

This isn’t the Big East Tournament. They can call it the Big East Tournament. They can pretend that this week’s bracket is building on the hallowed past of college basketball’s best conference. And They can act as if there is nothing pathetic and unjust about watching the powerhouse teams from the old Big East plying their trade in other league tournaments this week. But I know the truth.

2014 Mountain West Tournament Picks and College Basketball Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 3/11/2014

The Mountain West always holds one of the most entertaining and intriguing conference tournaments in the country. Even though this has been a relatively down season for the MWC, there is still no shortage of storylines for this league as it prepares to crown a champion.

Wichita State Shockers Odds to Win the 2014 NCAA Tournament with Picks and Predictions
by George Monroy - 3/11/2014

The Wichita State Shockers ended the season with a perfect 34-0 record and became the first team in 23 years to enter the NCAA Tournament undefeated. The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels completed the feat in 1991, but they did not win the national title as they were eventually eliminated from the tournament by the Duke Blue Devils. The Shockers, however, will have a chance to become the first undefeated National Champion since coach Bob Knight’s Indiana Hoosier ran the table in 1976.

Arizona Wildcats Odds to Win the 2014 NCAA Tournament with Picks and Predictions
by George Monroy - 3/11/2014

The Arizona Wildcats started the year on a tear by winning their first 21 games and being ranked No. 1 in the nation for most of that stretch. However, a broken leg and three losses during the final month of the season may have halted the team’s momentum and stuck a dagger through the heart of its national title hopes. Arizona’s Brandon Ashley suffered a broken leg early in the team’s first loss of the year against Pac-12 rival California back in February, and the team has not looked quite the same since.

College Basketball Handicapping: Teams Motivated for Conference Tournaments
by Trevor Whenham - 3/11/2014

As we enter major conference tournament time in college basketball there are inevitably some teams that are going to be more motivated to succeed than others. Here’s a look at one team poised for a big performance in each of the seven most important conferences (odds to win their conference tournaments are from Bovada):