Tag: 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

Why isn’t North Carolina in the 2023 NCAA men’s basketball tournament?

You might have noticed UNC is missing from the field of 64.

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament field is set, and hopefully you have your bracket filled out by now.

But if you’re like a lot of people joining in on the fun without having paid much attention during college basketball’s regular season, then you’ve probably noticed a big omission from the field of 64. A team you’re used to making deep runs. A team you’d probably have pushed through to at least the Sweet 16.

That team is North Carolina, one of men’s college basketball’s true blue bloods. Where in the world are the Tar Heels?

The answer is they simply didn’t do enough to qualify for the tournament. It’s as stunning to the avid college basketball fan as it is to the casual viewer. One year after reaching the national title game, UNC just wasn’t good enough.

It wasn’t supposed to be that way. The Tar Heels started the season as the AP preseason No. 1 team and a lot of people bet on them to make it back to the title game. But a four-game losing streak early in the season knocked them out the poll, and they only returned once in December as the 25th-ranked team before struggles in conference play knocked them out the rankings for good and put them on the tournament bubble.

As a last gasp to make the NCAA tournament, UNC needed to win the ACC tournament or at least add some impressive wins to its resume last week. Instead, the Heels were bounced by Virginia in the quarterfinals. That put the nail in the coffin.

Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams back in the 1980s, UNC is now the first team to miss the Big Dance after being the No. 1 preseason team.

And when the Tar Heels missed the NCAA tournament, they then quickly declined an invitation to the NIT.

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The Rhode Island Scumbag’s guide to betting the 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

Don’t overthink the favorites in 2023. But don’t discount a well-coached team like Creighton, either.

The Rhode Island Scumbag is our resident prognosticator who thoroughly cleaned up last year’s postseason basketball slate as a bettor. As such, he’s back to take us through both a select group of conference tournaments as well as the big dance itself. He chooses to remain anonymous (for now) for reasons unknown, though they may be related to the fact “Rhode Island Scumbag — 2021 to present” isn’t a particularly appealing resume item. 

Our betting sherpa did not have a good time in Las Vegas. Or, rather, he had a very good time while getting his per-drink cost down to roughly $120. Was he simply living the high life? Limiting his boozing after a night of modest blackjack losses? Or suffering through an unpredictable stretch of conference tournaments?

I’ll let you decide, dear reader, but since last week’s game picks hit at a 25 percent success rate and both his futures shots failed, it all added up to an uncharacteristically unprofitable week for a guy whose college basketball picks have historically done work around these parts. Last year’s locks paid out +49 units across three weeks and he’s be privately prolific with his regular season bets, so we’re gonna venture into the breach once more and see what turns out.

From here on out, all picks and analysis are his.

March Madness 2023: Best bets (VCU!) in the West Region

Kansas isn’t the only good bet in this region.

The West Region of the men’s NCAA tournament bracket is incredibly strong on each opposite end.

Between 1-seed Kansas and 2-seed UCLA, it’ll be hard to resist going chalk up to the regional final.

But while the other teams in this region may be a step below the top seeds, they’re mostly all in the same relative ballpark as each other. I sorted through the madness to find some good bets throughout the region.

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March Madness 2023: Best bets (Michigan State!) in the East Region

Michigan State vs. USC should be one of the best first-round games.

The East Region of the men’s NCAA tournament bracket has some heavy-hitters that leave it wholly unpredictable.

We’re talking about 1-seed Purdue, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 5 Duke, No. 6 Kentucky and a few more squads that could make deep tournament runs.

There aren’t many locks when it comes to a region like this, but I sorted through the mess to find the best bets of the best.

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4 potential first-round upsets for the NCAA men’s tournament, including 1 in each region

Let’s put a few teams on upset alert.

The odds of getting a perfect bracket in the NCAA tournament are so long that it’s practically impossible to do.

One of the things that makes it so hard is predicting all of the inevitable upsets. We know they’re going to happen. Oddsmakers know it too — there will always be Cinderellas. We just don’t know which teams fit the glass slipper yet.

So, let me preface everything to follow by saying, I don’t know either. Now that that’s out the way, these are my best bets for a first-round upset in each region. Please note, if the spread wasn’t at least more than a single bucket, I didn’t consider the game for an upset, regardless of seeds.

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Americans plan to bet $15 billion on the NCAA tournament, and they’ll waste much of it on Kentucky

There are better ways to blow your money.

Americans will bet a whole lot of money on the NCAA tournament this year. That’s not a surprise.

To be exact, 68 million American adults (26 percent) plan to wager $15.5 billion on the men’s tournament, according to a survey from the American Gaming Association.

More surprising is the team is receiving the majority of those bets.

According to the AGA, Kentucky leads the way with a 9 percent share of bets to win the national title. If you ever needed evidence of people blindly betting on name brands, here you go.

Yes, Kentucky is a blueblood program, but it isn’t national title good anymore. The Wildcats aren’t even ranked. They’re a 6-seed in the tournament, and only one of those has ever won the whole thing.

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This isn’t driven by homers either. Sports betting isn’t even legal in Kentucky. Nor is it legal in Texas, where the second most bet-on team resides.

Texas A&M — a 7-seed — is expected to receive 8% of bets, followed by Gonzaga, UCLA and Alabama at 6 percent each. Smells like a lot of wasted money on all but the last two to me.

According to the survey, 18 million more American adults plan to wager on March Madness compared to the Super Bowl, but they’re expected to spend about half a billion dollars less.

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5 bets to avoid during the 2023 NCAA men’s basketball tournament

A few pitfalls for bettors to avoid over the next few weeks.

Welcome to the Winner’s Circle, a weekly column by Bet For The Win senior writer Prince J. Grimes.

It’s the day after Selection Sunday, a wonderful time of year for bettors. So many games and teams to choose from.

We only have a day to figure out our favorite tournament bets before the First Four begins, but don’t be in such a rush that you fall into avoidable traps. There’s action that simply isn’t worth your time or attention.

To narrow down your betting options, I browsed the worldwide web for some trends to take heed to while betting on the NCAA tournament. These are the bets I would avoid:

Chalk throughout

This is self-explanatory and really doesn’t need to be said, but I’ll say it anyway. Don’t just bet on all higher seeds to win. Upsets will happen, and that actually starts with the First Four teams.

In all but one year of the First Four, at least one of the at-large teams has advanced to the second round. So expect one of Pittsburgh, Mississippi State, Nevada or Arizona State to come through on the moneyline against a 6-seed.

A top-4 seed will also lose in the first round if past years are an indication, but picking which of the 13- to 16-seed moneylines to tail is a little trickier.

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A 15 over a 2

This is one upset you might be inclined to take because it’s happened once each of the past two years. But it’s actually not all that common. Before Saint Peter’s rode a win over Kentucky to a deep 2022 run and Oral Roberts beat Ohio State in 2021, a 15-seed hadn’t beat a 2 since 2016.

Before that, it had only happened seven other times in tournament history. This year, I’m expecting Arizona, Texas, Marquette and UCLA to all safely advance to at least the second round.

Public bets against the spread

According to Action Network, tournament teams that receive 60 percent or more bets against the spread have a 41.2 percent winning percentage ATS since 2016.

Simply put, when the public is incredibly convinced a team is going to cover, that team probably isn’t going to cover.

Longshot futures

Since tournament seeding began in 1978, only four teams with odds longer than 20-1 have won the title, with UConn in 2014 being the longest at 100-1.

That narrow’s this year’s field considerably if the trend holds. Only 10 teams have odds shorter than 20-1 at BetMGM: Houston (+550), Kansas (+800), Alabama (+800), Purdue (+1100), UCLA (+1200), Arizona (+1200), Texas (+1600), UConn (+1600), Gonzaga (+1800) and Baylor (+1800).

This stat also makes sense when you consider no team seeded higher than No. 8 has ever won the tournament.

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1-seed upsets

The teams that end up as 1 seeds got there for a reason. This year, that’s Alabama, Houston, Purdue and Kansas. Let’s not go betting on upsets over No. 1s just for the sake of it.

These teams will always be your safest bets to not only win each round, but also win the entire tournament. Since 1985, 24 of the 37 national champions have been 1 seeds — including 12 of the past 15 winners.

That’s not to say every 1 seed will advance to the Final Four; 2008 is the only year where each Final Four team was a 1-seed — like I said, avoid chalk. But there’s a pretty good chance one of the four top-line teams will end up as the last standing.

And that’s it from me. Happy March!

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Betting guide for the 2023 NCAA men’s tournament First Four games

Best bets for the NCAA men’s tournament First Four games.

The NCAA men’s field of 68 is finally set, which means it’s time to start filling out brackets beginning with the First Four games.

In the South Region, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is playing Southeast Missouri St. for a chance to play 1-seed Alabama in the first round. The other 16-seed First Four game is between Texas Southern and Fairleigh Dickinson in the East, where Purdue is the 1 seed.

The 11-seed First Four games are between Mississippi State and Pittsburgh in the Midwest and Arizona State and Nevada in the West.

Bettors don’t just want to know who’s moving on, they want to know the best ways to make money. So below is my best bet for each matchup, and I also included my best guess for who will move on.

Latest bracketology roundup for the Hawkeyes ahead of Selection Sunday

Just ahead of Selection Sunday, here is a final bracketology roundup for the Iowa Hawkeyes from all of the major bracketology experts.

Alright, Hawkeyes fans! The Big Ten Tournament did not end as we all wanted, not by a long shot. I seriously doubt any Iowa fan hoped for a swift exit in the first game to 13th-seed Ohio State, even if that Buckeyes squad is currently set to play Purdue in the Semifinals at the time of writing.

While we may collectively feel down, we are not out quite yet! There is still an NCAA Tournament to play folks, and if this Big Ten Tournament has taught us anything, it’s that your previous body of work means NOTHING!

Anything can happen at the big dance, and no squad is safe from the dreaded upset watch. It’s the great time for redemption on an even playing field for Iowa, a team still projected by many to make it to the tournament.

In preparation for Selection Sunday, here is a roundup of all the bracketology projections for the Iowa Hawkeyes.