2013 NCAA Tournament Bracket Predictions: West Region
by Robert Ferringo - 3/19/2013

There is already an emerging theme heading into this year’s NCAA Tournament: The Rise of the Little Guy. The concept is not a fresh one. In fact, it is kind of a tried-and-true axiom that March Madness is a time for underdogs as much as it is a time for champions. But this year’s tournament field seems to be taking that theme to its logical conclusion: at some point the Little Guy will eventually become the Big Guy.

2013 NCAA Tournament Bracket Advice and Tips
by Aaron Smith - 3/19/2013

March Madness is here once again, which means it is time to fill out those NCAA Tournament Brackets. Passionate sports fans have been following college basketball all year long, but everyone else is jumping on board this week as March Madness brackets have a way of bringing in the public by the bunches. Before the end of this week, you’re likely to hear a lot of talk about March Madness around the office. It’s one of the best times of the year for a sports fan, and filling out that bracket never gets old!

2013 March Madness Bracket Predictions: East Region
by Robert Ferringo - 3/19/2013

The East is one of the most dangerous brackets in the tournament because I could realistically see any of five teams survive this region. At the same token, three of those teams I could also realistically see losing in the first round, and I think that all four of them will have to claw their way out of the opening weekend if they even want a chance at a berth in Atlanta.

March Madness Predictions: Reseeding the Brackets
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 3/19/2013

When seeding for the NCAA Tournament, the NCAA Selection Committee is hindered by certain guidelines. There are automatic qualifiers, there is a need to avoid conference rematches in the first two rounds, there are site locations to be aware of, etc. Las Vegas oddsmakers are bound by no such criteria when setting March Madness point spreads and NCAA Tournament future odds. It is not uncommon to see a No. 11 or No. 12 seed favored over a No. 6 or No. 5 seed.

Using Futures Odds to Fill Out Your NCAA Tournament Bracket
by Dave Schwab - 3/19/2013

The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee not only decides which at-large teams make it into the field of 68 after all the automatic bids have been handed out, but they also rank every team from No.1 to No.16 within one of the four regions based on past performance and future potential to make it out of that part of the bracket all the way to the Final Four.

2013 NCAA Tournament Bracket Predictions: Midwest Region
by Robert Ferringo - 3/18/2013

The Louisville Cardinals earned the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed By virtue of being the best team from the best conference in college basketball. But that top seed is certainly a paper crown. And, if the Cardinals want to earn back-to-back Final Four appearances, they will have to fight their way through potential matchups with Top 10 staples Duke or Michigan State.

2013 NCAA Tournament Handicapping: Best Value Bets
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2013

Betting NCAA Tournament futures requires a very different mindset than filling out a bracket does. With a bracket you are interested in picking the teams you think are mostly likely to win. In futures you aren’t necessarily concerned about that. Instead, you are focused on teams that have a better chance of winning than the odds suggest. If a team is at 200/1, but they have about a 1-in-100 chance of winning in your eyes, then they would be a much more attractive bet over the long run than a team that has a 1-in-10 chance of winning but is paying 5/1.

2013 March Madness Handicapping: No. 5 vs. No. 12 Seeds
by Aaron Smith - 3/18/2013

With Selection Sunday in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to focus on this year’s NCAA Tournament. March Madness is such a huge event for a couple main reasons. First of all, NCAA Tournament Bracket pools are extremely popular with sports and non-sports fans alike. Second, March is the time of the year for the underdog, and there aren’t many people who don’t love a good underdog story.

2013 NCAA Tournament Betting: Tough Teams to Trust
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2013

A team seeded in the Top 4 in their region should, if things turn out as expected, make it to the Sweet 16. Of course, it doesn’t always turn out that way. There are some high seeds that you can feel very confident in — it would take a massive upset for them to fail to advance. Last year’s Kentucky team that went on to win the title is the best example of that in recent memory, though Louisville certainly qualifies this year.

March Madness Handicapping: Potential Sweet 16 Surprises
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2013

If everything went according to expectations, the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament would be made up of the top four teams in each region. Of course, it almost never works out that way. Almost every year in the Sweet 16 we see some surprise teams. Some are only mild surprises — a No. 5 or No. 7 seed that plays well at the right time. But then there are the real longshots that just got hot at the right time. Last year we saw No. 10 Xavier, No. 11 North Carolina State, and No. 13 Ohio crash the party, and those were far from the only double-digit seeds we have seen on the second weekend in recent years.

2013 NIT Bracket Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2013

The top storyline of the NIT this year is that No. 1 overall seed, Kentucky, was the top seed in the NCAA Tournament last year and won it all. That’s not nearly as rare as it seems, though — Kentucky is actually the 20th defending champion not to make the Big Dance the next year. North Carolina was the last, in 2010. They were even worse than Kentucky — they were just a No. 4 seed in the NIT. They got hot at the right time, though, and made it all the way to final game before losing to Dayton.

2013 March Madness Predictions: Vulnerable Higher Seeds
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2013

The NCAA Tournament can crush the souls of fans better than almost anything else on the planet. A team can play all season to secure a good seeding only to see their season evaporate in seconds thanks to a lucky shot, bad play, or an upstart Cinderella. The fans of these four teams should brace themselves for potential frustration earlier in this tournament than they are hoping for.

2013 NCAA Tournament Predictions: Dangerous Lower Seeds
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2013

There are about a million different things that make the NCAA tournament so ridiculously great. Right near the top of that list is the crazy upsets that can happen. Sometimes they come from absolutely nowhere — like Lehigh over Duke last year. More often, though, the upsets at least make a little bit of sense for people who have done their homework.

2013 March Madness Bracket Trends: Handicapping No. 1 Seeds
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2013

There were a lot of teams that could have been named a No. 1 seed this year in the NCAA Tournament — at least seven. There was only room for four, though. Here’s a look at each of the lucky four that got what is at least theoretically the easiest path through their regions:

2013 March Madness Brackets Advice and Tips
by Trevor Whenham - 3/18/2013

The bracket is set, and you are probably already getting the invitations to fill out brackets and enter pools. Of course, you want to win. To help give you the best possible chance to fill out a winning bracket, here is some prime March Madness bracket advice and tips for 2013:

NCAA Tournament Championship Game Predictions - Betting the Total Line
by David Schwab - 4/2/2012

Tonight at the Superdome in New Orleans, the Midwest Region’s No.2-seed Kansas Jayhawks clash with the South Region’s No.1-seed Kentucky Wildcats for this season’s men’s college basketball’s national title. The Wildcats have been opened as healthy six-point favorites, but the more interesting play could actually be on this game’s total line, which is set at 137.5.

NCAA Tournament Final Four Props Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 3/29/2012

Even though there is only a single No. 1 seed in the Final Four, it’s a pretty chalk group with Kentucky (the lone top seed), Ohio State, Kansas and Louisville. It’s a far cry from last year when we had No. 8 Butler and No. 11 VCU crash the Final Four party.

NCAA Final Four: Handicapping the Coaches
by T.O. Whenham - 3/29/2012

There isn’t a whole lot to complain about with the Final Four this year. We have strong teams with great players and the best rivalry storyline we have seen at this point in years. If you were looking to be critical, though, one thing you absolutely couldn’t knock is the caliber of the coaching. This group of four head coaches is so strong that Thad Matta looks like the outsider of the group in terms of accomplishments, and all he’s done is win tournament games with three teams, make the tournament in 10 of 12 years as a coach, and take Ohio State to the championship game in 2007.

Final Four Predictions: Futures Odds for NCAA Tournament
by T.O. Whenham - 3/28/2012

Kentucky is an overwhelming favorite to win the NCAA Championship this year. Bovada has them pegged at -150 to win the tournament. Ohio State is a distant second at +300 with Kansas at +500 and Louisville a longshot at +900.

NCAA Final Four Predictions: Louisville vs. Kentucky Odds and Betting Picks
by Alan Matthews - 3/27/2012

How strong is this year’s Final Four? Louisville vs. Kentucky, which features too many incredible storylines to list them all, isn’t even the marquee prime-time game. The fourth-seeded Cardinals and top-overall seed Wildcats tip around 6:10 p.m. EST on Saturday night and the entire state of Kentucky, guaranteed, will be shut down to watch this matchup.