NCAA Tournament Odds: Interesting Prop Bets With Predictions
by T.O. Whenham - 3/16/2011

When it comes to prop bets the NCAA Tournament can’t touch the Super Bowl, the king of all prop betting experiences. There are still a lot of different ways to get action on this tournament, though. Let’s do a survey of some of the different sportsbooks to find their most interesting NCAA Tournament odds for prop bets:

March Madness Prop Bets and Predictions
by Darin Zank - 3/16/2011

Basketball bettors won't have any problems finding March Madness futures odds. Just about every online sportsbook is offering prices on who will win the tournament, and even on each of the regions. If possible, bettors who want to get down on those wagering opportunities might do well to shop around at different books and search out the best prices.

NCAA Tournament Futures Odds and Predictions
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 3/16/2011

There are almost as many betting props out there as potential bracket combinations. It can be a little overwhelming sorting through all the potential wagers and all the games and sorting out the best bets for this tournament. Couple that with the countless March Madness brackets you have filled out for your office pool, your dad’s office pool, your roommate’s pool, etc., and the phrase ‘March Madness’ could be used to describe your evolving state of mind this week.

NCAA Tournament Predictions: Best and Worst Conferences
by Aaron Smith - 3/16/2011

As you are handicapping each region and filling out your March Madness brackets for every game in the NCAA Tournament, you must consider every factor that could affect the outcome. One of the tools that you’ll need to use is strength of conference. It absolutely matters what type of conference each team played in during the regular season. These teams will be well-prepared for the tournament if they are in a strong conference with a regular slate of top-notch opponents.

March Madness Predictions and Bracket Help: West Region
by Robert Ferringo - 3/15/2011

The West Region of the NCAA Tournament should be known as The Defending Champs and the Dangerous Dozen. Duke, the defending National Champion, has the inside track to another Final Four berth. But in order to make their way to Houston they will have to navigate a region that includes five other teams that were ranked in the Top 10 this year and at least a half-dozen others – Michigan, Memphis, Oakland, Missouri, Temple, Penn State – that are capable of stringing together two or three wins and busting brackets across the country.

NCAA Tournament Bracket Predictions: Southeast Region
by Robert Ferringo - 3/15/2011

If this were the World Cup then the Southeast Region would be considered the Group of Death. The 2010 runner-up is the No. 8 seed (Butler). The best scorer in the country is with the No. 3 seed (BYU). Two programs with a combined nine Final Four appearances in the last 12 years are playing one another (Michigan State vs. UCLA) as the No. 7 and No. 10 seeds.

March Madness Bracket Predictions: East Region
by Robert Ferringo - 3/15/2011

The East (Newark) Region of the NCAA Tournament features four of the top 10 most heavily favored teams to win the national title. Top seeded Ohio State presently has the third-best odds to win the title (+465) while Kentucky (+1615), North Carolina (+2050) and Syracuse (+2550) are all among the Top 10 teams deemed most likely to win it all.

March Madness Brackets Advice and Tips: Over-Seeded and Under-Seeded Teams
by T.O. Whenham - 3/15/2011

Creating the March Madness bracket every year is a brutally hard job, and I fully realize and respect how it would be totally impossible to make everyone happy. Still, that respect doesn’t mean I have to like or agree with everything they do. This year in particular there seems to be a particularly high number of head-scratchers. That’s what you get when you put a guy from Ohio State in charge of anything, I guess. Here’s a look at the most over-seeded and under-seeded teams in the bracket in my eyes with some March Madness brackets advice and tips to help you avoid common mistakes that the rest of your competition will likely make:

NCAA Tournament Predictions: Potential Early Upsets
by Darin Zank - 3/15/2011

When it comes to handicapping the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, whether it's to wager on individual games or fill out a bracket, the logic boils down to this; the top seeds are going to win most of the games, but there will be a handful of upsets. The trick is to pick those upsets in advance. Because what good is an upset if you can't take advantage of it?

NCAA Tournament Brackets Strategy: Potential Trap Games
by T.O. Whenham - 3/15/2011

Every year in the tournament there are the teams that the public really likes -- the high profile, usually highly seeded teams full of future NBA stars that the media has been talking about as a potential champion. When the public locks on to one of those teams they are usually very enthusiastic in their support. They don’t bother to look too deeply at what challenges face them in the bracket on the way to the Promised Land. They just blindly and loyally back them.

Potential NCAA Tournament Cinderella Teams
by Alan Matthews - 3/15/2011

Already here at Doc’s we previewed the No. 5 vs. No. 12 second-round matchups (it still feels weird saying second round but that’s what the NCAA calls the former first round now that there is a “First Four” on Tuesday and Wednesday). So for this story on potential Cinderella teams for the NCAA Tournament, I will forgo any No. 12 seeds, although there are two very good potential Cinderellas in that group (Utah State and Richmond).

March Madness Predictions and Betting Advice
by T.O. Whenham - 3/15/2011

The tournament is finally here. After months of watching basketball constantly, weeks of watching the bubble like a hawk, days of conference tournament addiction, and now countless hours of studying the bracket, I am ready to make five bold March Madness predictions about what is going to happen starting Thursday. They may not really be that bold, but they aren’t totally safe, either:

March Madness Brackets Strategy: Reseeding the Brackets
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 3/15/2011

The NCAA Selection Committee does not have the luxury of seeding every team like it deserves to be seeded. The four best teams are usually the No. 1 seeds. The worst four teams are playing in the play-in games. But in between that the selection committee has to juggle teams to avoid regular-season rematches and potential conference showdowns in the second round all while taking major consideration to the location of the game. What this means is that rarely are teams assigned their true seed.

NCAA Tournament Brackets Strategy: The No. 5 vs. No. 12 Seed Upsets
by Alan Matthews - 3/15/2011

Overall, the No. 5 seed is 69-35 against the No. 12 seed since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. So nearly 67 percent of the time the No. 5 comes out victorious. But being that there are four 5-12 games, that generally does mean you see one No. 12 over a No. 5 first-round upset. It happened last year, for example, with Cornell beating Temple. By comparison, a No. 4 seed is 82-22 since 1985 against a No. 13 seed and a No. 6 is 71-33 against a No. 11.

NCAA Tournament Handicapping: The Biggest Challenges
by Aaron Smith - 3/15/2011

This is one of the most exciting weeks of the year for sports fans and bettors. March Madness captures the attention of nearly everyone with its trademark tremendous finishes. There’s no doubt this year’s tournament will be another exciting one. If there is a negative to March Madness for the average sports bettor, it clearly is the amazing amount of challenges that come with handicapping the NCAA Tournament. College basketball handicapping during the tournament is far different than during the regular season. Let’s take a closer look at some of the challenges that are specific to the NCAA Tournament.

NCAA Tournament Predictions: Potential Sweet Sixteen Surprises
by T.O. Whenham - 3/15/2011

The NCAA Tournament is as brilliant as it is because of many things, but upsets would be chief among them. There are few things I like more in sports than seeing the dust settle after the opening weekend and seeing some incredibly unlikely teams still alive when 48 other teams (or 52 thanks to this stupid new format) are already on their way home with their tails between their legs. What makes these upsets so exciting is that they aren’t always easy to spot. Here are six spots, though, that seem to have at least a decent chance of producing a pleasing shocker according to my NCAA Tournament predictions:

NCAA Tournament Facts and Interesting Tidbits
by T.O. Whenham - 3/14/2011

The term March Madness has only been associated with the NCAA Tournament since the early 1980’s -- perhaps thanks to usage by Brent Musberger. It’s been around referring to college basketball a lot longer than that, though. High school basketball tournaments in Midwestern states like Indiana and Illinois have been using the term since the 1930s.

NCAA Tournament Betting Trends
by T.O. Whenham - 3/14/2011

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting antsy. The field is set, I’ve stared at the bracket until I can’t see anymore, and now I just want the games to start -- and I’m not talking about those stupid games in Dayton. The next three weeks -- and especially the first four days of the NCAA Tournament -- are like Christmas for sports bettors. To help pass the time until the games start, and to hopefully make the March Madness betting experience more fun and profitable, here’s a look at NCAA Tournament betting trends from three different perspectives:

NCAA Tournament Bracket Tips and Advice
by T.O. Whenham - 3/14/2011

For a lot of people the NCAA Tournament is all about one thing -- winning your tournament pool. If you want to have a good chance of winning your bracket you need to be lucky, but you also need to make sure that you are making good decisions to give yourself the best chance of success. In a lot of pools there are many people who really have no idea how to fill out a bracket properly, so you have a big edge over most of those people just by thinking about what you are doing as you do it. Here are some NCAA Tournament bracket tips and advice to help you find the right path:

NCAA Tournament Odds and Predictions
by T.O. Whenham - 3/14/2011

Looking at the NCAA Tournament odds just minutes after they came out there are a few games that really stand out as surprising or interesting. Here are 10 games that are the most interesting at first glance (NCAA Tournament odds for these games and all others are available from Bookmaker):