When it comes to betting on college basketball, smart bettors know that coaches really matter. College players are young and inexperienced, so the guidance of a coach can make the difference between a bad team and a great one. Coaching is obviously important in every sport, but the impact of a (more…)

Anyone who bets on college basketball regularly knows that it is not at all uncommon to see big spreads – double digit monsters. These lines are always tough to handicap because the favorite can win the game easily and still not come close to covering the spread. You really have to (more…)

Tempo – a simple term and a simple concept that provide quick and valuable insight into what happened in past college basketball games, and what is likely to happen in future ones. It’s impossible to watch every NCAA hoop game played – or even a significant percentage of them. By using (more…)

In NCAA basketball, everybody loves an upset – the kind when a scary Goliath is knocked down to size by the most unlikely of Davids. It’s exciting to watch, and it’s especially exciting because we often don’t know they are going to happen until they have happened. These upsets are particularly (more…)

I love college basketball – can’t get enough of it. That’s part of why I find this time of year so interesting – teams are practicing and getting ready for the season, but there is so much else going on in sports that few people notice. The first few weeks of (more…)

With the arrival of the college basketball season handicappers who are focusing on the sport are left with an interesting debate – should they be a generalist or a specialist. Generalists look for the most attractive games played on a given day, while specialists focus their attention on one conference and (more…)

By the time we get halfway through the college basketball season we are able to have a pretty strong sense of what teams have to offer bettors. More significantly, we’ve already seen teams go through changes. Some college hoop teams start out very strong and then falter as the season progresses (more…)

The closer we get to NCAA Tournament time, the more value there is for college basketball bettors in being able to spot good teams that are flying under the radar. When March Madness rolls around there are always teams that the betting public and the mainstream media don’t see coming – (more…)

As we get closer and closer to the start of the college basketball season every handicapper who loves the sport is looking for ways to get an edge out of the gate. One of the best ways to do that is to attempt to spot teams that could be significantly better (more…)

For handicappers it can be a real challenge to assess situations when a key player is returning to action after a long absence. Whether it’s in the postseason or the regular season handicappers need to be sure they can quickly get a sense of what is likely to happen so that (more…)

There are more neutral site games played in college basketball than in any other sport. There are actually more played in college basketball than all other sports combined. That means that neutral site games have to be on the mind of college basketball handicappers to a much higher degree than they (more…)

There is still a whole lot of college basketball left to play this year. It would be dangerous to assume that we really know how good or bad teams really are – or are going to be by the end of the year. We can’t help but be surprised by some (more…)

Before we know it the college basketball season will be underway. Early in the season the sport doesn’t get a whole lot of betting attention. The problem is that it just doesn’t get much attention because there is so much else going on – the NFL and college football are getting (more…)

One of the concepts we hear a lot about when handicapping college basketball is the importance of returning starters. The basic theory is simple – the more returning starters a team has, the more comfortable they are going to be with the demands of their coach and the speed of college (more…)

We don’t see a lot of midseason coaching changes in college basketball. Sometimes, though, a situation is bad enough that teams just have to make a change – just like Wyoming did in early February of 2011. When those changes happen they can create a really powerful opportunity for sports bettors. (more…)

Guys like Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, and Derick Rose have done college basketball bettors a disservice. Those guys have shown what is possible when a ridiculously talented young player is given a leadership role on a team. They were very successful in their one year in college – especially Anthony – (more…)

When you are thinking about handicapping the college basketball season what you are really doing is handicapping seven different, distinct mini-seasons. Each one is unique because the motivations and levels of preparedness of teams are different in each case, and that changes how successful bettors approach each segment of the season. (more…)

Not long after the hoop nets are cut down and the NCAA Championship is over for the year you can bet on who you think is going to win the next edition. It’s always intriguing to see what the futures have to say about the college basketball teams and their chances (more…)

In college Basketball the best time to place bets during the season is the first week in January when conference play begins. The reason being is that usually non-conference games for teams in the larger conference are basically warm-up games for their upcoming season. There are some exceptions to this rule, (more…)

College basketball is becoming one of the most popular sports to bet on due to the fact of the amount of games that are available to place bets on. For a five month span from November to March there is a plethora of games for which to bet every night. For (more…)

People who spend a lot of time handicapping college basketball are obviously very sophisticated in their approach. People who only do it casually or are just starting out typically look at a few predictable factors – the records of the teams, the conferences they play in, the performance of the high (more…)

A growing trend in sports betting is the betting on the second half of a college basketball game. However, this bet is not for everyone as it is a bet that has to be made at the spur of the moment. You have until the end of the first half until (more…)

Some made for TV events work better than others. One of the best, from both a spectator and a betting perspective, is ESPN’s BracketBuster. The annual college basketball event which comes around late in February every year creates some real drama, and some real value.

Some background if you aren’t familiar with (more…)

There are a variety of factors that come into play when betting on NCAA college basketball. Besides your basic statistics, home-court advantage, and scheduling, there is another aspect that can influence the outcome of a game significantly – the revenge factor. When you look at the latest odds to figure out (more…)