Here are the current tournament articles and how to tips
from Maddux Sports.
One of the interesting aspects of the NCAA Tournament from a betting perspective is how the feel of games can change throughout the day - especially on the first weekend of action. Games on those days start early in the morning and go well into the night. It can feel like an endurance test for those watching the games. There are several distinct ways in which the later games in the day are different than the earlier games. Here are five of those reasons that stand out: ...
The NCAA Tournament is tough to handicap for all sorts of reasons. One of the biggest of those reasons is that teams have such different experiences in the regular season that it can be hard to really get a sense of how they stack up against each other. A team that can score at will in their conference may be an offensive force in the tournament as well, or they may struggle against their opponent. A stellar defensive team in the regular season may look perfectly average - or worse - in the postseason. Defensively it can be particularly tough t ...
In recent years we have seen the NCAA Tournament expand from 64 teams to 65, and now to 68. There was talk when it went to 68 that it might go to 96, but thankfully that terrible idea was avoided. With the expansion of the tournament we are now faced with a series of play-in games in Dayton Ohio in the two days before the real tournament starts. Or rather, they used to be called play-in games. Now they are referred to as the first round. That makes the old first round the second round, and so on - unnecessarily confusing. Regardless of what the ...
In most cases in college basketball you would expect a team that has a significant advantage in skill and experience to win. If you have watched the NCAA Tournament for any amount of time, though, then you know that the talented team doesn’t always win. Every year we see teams win games that on paper they should have no business winning. The best way for an outclassed team to win is to have a style of play that is disruptive to their opponent. If they don’t play in a way that is familiar to their opponent, and which can be tough to adjust to, t ...
There are few things I like more in sports than sitting down in the evening of the Sunday before the NCAA Tournament to see the bracket as it is introduced. Selection Sunday is all about seeing where your team winds up, which teams get a good draw, which teams are given a rough road, and which teams are left out entirely. It’s a perfect start to a perfect month of basketball action. When bettors look at the bracket right when it is first released, though, it is easy for them to make some costly mistakes because of easy but inaccurate assumption ...
When it comes to handicapping the NCAA Tournament experience is a factor that gets discussed as much or more than any other. Whether it relates to tournament experience or overall college basketball experience - from the players or the coaches - it is a factor that gets much discussed, and which many bettors attach very significant importance to. The reality is, though, that experience is a factor that many people don’t think about correctly. There are times when it is indeed an extremely important factor, but other times when it can easily be ...
It seems as if there are more and more bracketology articles every year. Experts - some legitimate and some dubious - try to predict what the NCAA tournament bracket is going to look like. That means that they will predict who will get in, who will be out, and what seeds teams will earn. In an effort to gain attention and get a head start these articles are appearing earlier and earlier every year, too - sometimes when conference play has only barely begun. While these articles are nothing more than speculation, and they rarely accurately predi ...
The championship game in the NCAA tournament differs in small but significant ways from the Final Four, and form all the other games that have come before it. Bettors who can recognize those differences are better positioned to take advantage of the opportunities that they can create. Here are five of the bigger differences: ...
Betting on futures in the NCAA Tournament - whether on who is going to win it all, or which teams will win their regions and progress to the Final Four - is one of the most fun parts of betting on March Madness. It can be profitable, too. In order to give yourself a good chance at profiting, though, you need to make sure to avoid the costly mistakes that can put a hole in your bankroll. Here are five of the biggest mistakes people make when betting NCAA futures: ...
Prop betting in the NCAA Tournament can be both fun and profitable. As the options expand each year and books get more creative in order to stand out there are more and more opportunities out there to consider. Some prop bets make great sense, and others really don’t. In order to make money over the long term betting on NCAA Tournament props you need to avoid costly mistakes. Here are five to be on the lookout for: ...
There are some things bettors hear every year when the NCAA Tournament rolls around - factors that will have a big impact on the outcome of the tournament. Some of those really are significant. Many, though, sound a whole lot more important than they really are. Smart bettors are able to recognize the factors that don’t really have a significant effect on the outcome and ignore them, or at least treat them as they deserve. Here are six such factors: ...
People love to makes futures bets. Sportsbooks also love to offer them for one big reason - they are very profitable. In a lot of cases betting seriously on futures bets is not something that serious bettors will pay a lot of attention to. You have to tie your money up for a long time, you are dealing with a lot of uncertainty, and the value often isn’t significant enough to adequately compensate for that uncertainty. They can be fun bets to make and to handicap, but you can often find more effective ways to leverage your money and maximize pot ...
Almost every year it seems like we have at least one unlikely winner of a major conference tournament. A team will come into their tournament seeded well down the list. They’ll have all sorts of issues that led them to underachieve and disappoint during the season. They’ll potentially face teams that were much better than them in the regular season. The odds are stacked against them, yet somehow they get hot at just the right time, their luck sticks with them, and they pull of a shocking conference tournament win. That could get them a NCAA Tou ...
The Final Four is almost like an entirely new tournament within the NCAA Tournament . The teams that get there are immensely talented, and they have had the ideal combination of skill, form, and luck to overcome their obstacles and win four high pressure games. For handicappers, some of the things that are important to consider in the earlier rounds, and some of the angles that worked well early on, aren’t going to work nearly as well when the stakes are the highest. Here are four ways in which the Final Four differs from earlier rounds. The mo ...
Every year during conference championship week there are a few tournament winners who are real head scratchers. These are the low seeded teams that had plodded through the regular season that somehow manage to get hot at just the right time to claim their conference title and secure an NCAA tournament bid that they may not have otherwise received. Quite often these teams cool down again when the big dance starts and disappear as suddenly as they appeared. Sometimes, though, teams can carry their momentum forward to even bigger things - like whe ...
There is nothing more fun to watch in the NCAA tournament that a Cinderella team - a squad that far exceeds the expectations based on their background and their seeding. For bettors these teams can be fun for another reason - they can be extremely profitable. Teams that make surprising tournament runs tend to share some characteristics. Not all Cinderella teams have to have all seven of these characteristics, but if a team doesn’t have any of these characteristics - or just one or two - then it will be very tough for that team to shock the worl ...
Conference tournaments are a unique handicapping challenge in college basketball. They are games like any other, yet there are things that make them different as well - a compact schedule, high pressure, and so on. As a foundation you need to handicap these games just like you would any other game. You need to go deeper than that, though. Here are five of the biggest additional considerations you need to keep in mind to be successful in conference tournament season. ...
Betting on conference tournaments in college basketball is something I always look forward to - it's like an appetizer for the glorious main course that is the NCAA tournament. It's also a good time to find some nice value and pad the bankroll for the the big show that's about to come. A lot of people approach conference tournaments the wrong way, though, and it costs them. Here are six of the biggest mistakes that people make when betting on conference tournaments. ...
When NCAA Tournament time rolls around there is an overwhelming number of teams to analyze, and not much time to do it between when the bracket is set and when the games are played. In order to have the time to look closely at all of the good teams and the intriguing games you need to be able to quickly determine whether the more obscure teams need to be taken seriously, or if they can be discarded and basically ignored as a serious threat. There's no simple formula for determining that, but there are a number of questions you can ask to quick ...
For most of the 100 teams that are playing in the NCAA Tournament and the NIT it is a very exciting time. They have worked hard all season, have had some decent results, and have been rewarded for their work with a spot in the postseason and a chance to make a real splash. Inevitably, though, there will be teams that don't feel good about the hand that has been dealt to them. It could be a NCAA Tournament team that doesn't think they were seeded high enough, or that they are playing in a pod that is harder that it should be, or in a location t ...
March Madness. Arguably the biggest, best, most fun to watch sporting event of the year. With the expansion to 68 teams, we will get to see even more games. And with the TV expansion we will literally get to watch all games. The NCAA added TBS, TNT, and truTV to CBS for at least the next 14 years. March Madness is also one the most wagered on events in the world. The excitement, the sheer amount of games, and the high likelihood of upsets makes the NCAA Tournament one of the most interesting and lucrative events in the betting world. Here are ...
For a lot of people March is all about filling in a bracket that is good enough to win your pool. The money is usually pretty good when you do that, but it's nothing compared to the pride and bragging rights that come with a win. There is a lot of luck involved in winning a bracket, but there is at least as much skill involved as well. If you make bad decisions then you are making it much harder for yourself to come out on top. Bettors - good ones - should have a big edge over the general public when it comes to filling out brackets. Not only ...
I love the NIT. For betting, that is. As a tournament or a spectator event it's pretty much a waste of time these days. For people who are willing to get past that and handicap it, though, it's another great source for profits in March. Here are five great reasons to like the NIT if you are a sports bettor. ...
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NIT Betting 
College basketball mostly comes to an end in March, but not before a whole lot of games are played. There is the NCAA Tournament - which every sports fan in the country pays attention to. Then there is the NIT, which used to be great and is now largely ignored by all but hardcore fans of the sports, fans of the teams in the tournament, and serious bettors. Then there are the two new tournaments that most casual fans don't even know exist. Those would be the College Basketball Invitational, or CBI, and the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tourname ...
The NCAA Tournament is the best time of year for college basketball bettors, and quite possibly for all sports bettors. If you aren't careful, though, it can also be a very expensive time of year. The lines are tighter than they usually are in college basketball, and heavy public action has a big impact on those lines, so you can easily find yourself making rough bets if you fall into some tempting traps that present themselves this time of year. Here are five of the biggest mistakes bettors make at tournament time, and what you can do to avoi ...
There are a lot of different ways a team can win the NCAA Tournament. Different winners have had stars at different positions, different strengths and weaknesses, and have accomplished different things during the regular season. There are some things, though, that virtually all champions have in common - traits that help them succeed in a way that only one team can every year. Here are 10 traits that will very likely define the team that cuts down the nets at the beginning of every April. ...
Handicapping the NCAA Tournament is, in a lot of ways, at least theoretically the ultimate dream for bettors. You know teams will be playing at full intensity, and the neutral site eliminates at least some of the home court issues, so it's a more pure form of handicapping than a lot of games - you just have to pick the best team. In reality, of course, it's not that simple, but it's still one of the most exciting things for bettors to handicap each year. When people handicap the NCAA Tournament there are a lot of factors that get a lot of atte ...
There is an almost endless list of factors you can consider when handicapping the NCAA tournament. Some factors obviously matter more than others. One that I think is significant and often overlooked - or at least not looked at in as many ways as it should be - is the location of games. Here are five ways in which location factors into the outcome of games. ...
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NCAA Tournament Locations Over half of teams in the NCAA Tournament field, and a large majority of the major conference teams, come into the tournament after having lost their last game. Some of those teams not only lost their last game, but they were humiliated - totally schooled. Those teams that come into the tournament off of bad losses are hard to handicap. Were they just victims of circumstance, or was it a sign of their true selves? Here are seven questions you can ask to help evaluate the meaning of that last loss. ...
Conference strength is a challenging concept for college basketball handicappers. When it comes to the postseason there is a lot we can learn from conference strength, but there are a lot of ways that it can lead us astray as well. As with most things, the best way to deal with the issue is to understand the issues so you can find the best ways to deal with them. Here are two ways that conference strength can be very helpful in postseason handicapping, and two ways that it can lead to problems. ...
Conference tournaments have the real potential to cause handicappers one more headache as they can easily add more wrinkles to the already daunting challenge of handicapping the NCAA Tournament. There are basically three things a team can do at their conference tournament. If they do pretty much what was expected of them we haven't really learned anything from the performance to change our opinion of the team. Problems arise, though, when a team does solidly better or worse than they were expected to perform. That means we have to reassess whe ...
Leading up to the NCAA tournament all of the talk is about seeds - which teams will be seeded where, and what that means for them. In some ways the intense discussion is important for handicappers to keep in mind, but in other ways it is nothing more than a distraction. Here's a look at ways in which they can help and they can hurt. ...
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NCAA Tournament Seeds In the NCAA Tournament every win counts, and winning is ultimately all that matters. Sometimes, though, the wins that teams get are particularly ugly. In the first round in particular you'll often see a highly seeded team play very poorly but still come out on top because of a massive skill and athleticism advantage. They often don't deserve to win, and if they keep playing like that then they might not continue winning, but they still have another chance to show what they can do. For handicappers, teams that win ugly can create a real headach ...
The NCAA Tournament is all about the Cinderella teams - the teams that seemingly defy all odds to pull off an upset or two against higher ranked teams. For handicappers these Cinderella teams can create serious headaches. Now that they have won you have to figure out if they are capable of continuing to win, or if they have reached the end of their line. Public attention on these teams will be higher than they normally would be, so you have to be reasonably confident of their chances one way or the other because value can be tough to find. Her ...
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Cinderella Teams There is nothing I love more than the NCAA Tournament. It's perfect in almost every way. One of the many ways it shines is in the opportunities it provides for handicappers. Because of the huge amount of public attention on the tournament there is a massive amount of value available on prop bets and especially on individual games. Finding it requires discipline and research, though. It also requires bettors to make adjustments from round to round because each round of the tournament is unique. The biggest adjustment that has to be made - and i ...
The NCAA Tournament is an interesting challenge for bettors. For the first four days of the tournament there is a constant, almost overwhelming stream of games to watch and handicap. Then there is silence. From the end of the second round on Sunday night to the start of the Sweet 16 on Thursday night there is no tournament basketball to bet on. You can fill the time with the NIT, CBI, or CIT, but those aren't particularly satisfactory replacements for a lot of people. If you are committed to NCAA Tournament betting domination then these four d ...
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Sweet 16 Picks Betting on the championship game of the NCAA Tournament is different than betting on any other college basketball game played throughout the year. In some ways it's just another basketball game, but it is really so much more than that. Players treat it differently, bettors treat it differently, and so successful bettors have to treat it differently as well. Here are four ways in which the final game of the college basketball season is unique. ...
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