NCAA March Madness Betting: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

The Good: Positively, New Jersey!!!!

Again, most pundits did not have the Princeton Tigers making the NCAAB Betting Tournament a few weeks ago. Yale and Penn seemed a little better, and Yale had the upper hand. Things looked bleak when the Bulldogs waltzed into Princeton and easily defeated the Tigers. 

Then, Princeton found a way to defeat Penn and return the favor against Yale. That allowed the Tigers to get into the tournament as a 15 seed. Still, little was expected of Princeton as it faced Arizona. The Wildcats were a possible Final Four pick. Early in the second half, Princeton was down 10. After that, Princeton proved to be one of those March Matchups teams don't want when it went on a 20-6 run to shock the college basketball world. 

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It turns out that another New Jersey college had an even bigger upset plan. Fairleigh Dickinson quickly got through the play-in game and got the reward of playing top-seeded Purdue. The Boilermakers were 23.5-point favorites. That did not matter, as the smallest school in Division I made just enough plays to jolt the Boilermakers and college basketball. 

That 63-58 victory was only the second time a 16 seed beat a 1. See UMBC over Virginia five years ago as the first. Although FDU lost to Florida Atlantic on Sunday, the story was still written. As for Princeton, the Tigers advanced to the Sweet 16 behind a 15-point win (5.5-point underdogs). They will face Creighton on Friday night. 

The Bad:  So Many Unfortunate Decisions

Having Arizona advance to the Elite Eight or Final Four in brackets was an awful idea. For one, living in New Jersey keeps other Jersey residents and me from betting on the NJ colleges (Princeton and FDU). Kansas was almost as ugly of a decision. The Jayhawks blew out Howard in Round 1, only to come up short against Arkansas. 

That was far from the only horrible decision. Duke looked incredible going into their meeting with Tennessee. Give the Volunteers a ton of credit. They punched Duke right in the mouth (which is what Duke usually does). The Blue Devils never recovered as Tennessee easily won by 13.

Wait, then there was Miami, decided underdog against Indiana. The Hoosiers looked poised to advance, and instead, the Hurricanes attacked their way to a 16-point triumph. Yes, the right side of the brackets fared better than the left. The East region has no 1 or 2 seeds, while the South has Princeton and Creighton. Neither were they expected to be there.

Again, even the Over started to make a little headway after 27 of the first 36 games in this tournament tilted to the Under. Sometimes one never knows when the bus will stop; teams started scoring late on Sunday into the night. 

The Ugly: Oh No Gonzaga!

Again, it looked like Gonzaga bettors would be happy on Sunday. The Bulldogs appeared to have covered the spread via a late foul and two made foul shots. Gonzaga was laying 4.5 points, and then it happened. 

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Damion Baugh let the inbound roll, roll, and roll. Then he heaved a three-point shot. Naturally, it went in. A six-point Gonzaga win turned into a three-point victory. With that, the Bulldogs and their bettors were deprived of winning ATS. Grand Canyon was down 18 before cutting the loss to 12 on Thursday. That was nowhere as bad of a beat as Sunday.

The scary part is there are still 11 games to go in March Madness Betting. For all those “One Shining Moments,” many more of those tha got away. Thanks for reading.