NCAA Tournament First Round Day One Betting Tips

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Eight tips for day one of the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.

I will also be providing tips for Friday’s games on Thursday.

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A lot to get to here so we’ll just jump right in.

#11 Michigan vs. #6 Colorado State Betting Tips:

The first game of the day is a the #6 versus #11 match-up that so often sees an upset and possibly the first upset.

Michigan has just a 17-14 record which isn’t that impressive, but they had one of the hardest schedules in all of college basketball this season. The Big Ten was a bloodbath this year and they put multiple teams in this tournament.

The Mountain West conference wasn’t nearly as competitive and CSU had a 66th ranked strength of schedule so, like Shania Twain would say, their record don’t impress me much. The Mountain West Conference has a 1-7 in the opening round since 2016.

Pick: Bet Michigan -2

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#8 Memphis vs #9 Boise State Betting Tips:

Memphis has one of the most athletic teams in all of college basketball, they had last year’s best recruiting class, but it hasn’t all come together on the court like many expected as they had just a 21-10 record this season with some embarrassing losses.

Boise State is another Mountain West team and while they’ve had an impressive season as I said above the Mountain West Conference has a 1-7 in the opening round since 2016.

I don’t think Memphis is going deep, but I do think they are the better team here. They have the athletes to dominate this one and I think they will.

Pick: Bet Memphis -2.5

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#5 Iowa vs. #12 Richmond Betting Tips:

The Big Ten was highly competitive this year and Iowa was able to come out on top of the Big Ten tournament. I am very high on them and have them going to the Sweet Sixteen at the very least.

Richmond had a fine season, but losses to Saint Joseph’s, Mississippi State, and Utah State by double digits seem predictive of how this one ends up.

Pick: Bet Iowa -10.5

#8 North Carolina vs. #9 Marquette Betting Tips:

The Tar Heels are coming in hot having won eight of their last ten games. While Marquette was only 4-6 over their last ten games. Marquette is heavily reliant on Justin Lewis to carry things which could be a problem here as UNC can put a great defender in Leaky Black on him.

This should be a tight match-up, but I think it will ultimately come down to rebounding. UNC is a strong defensive rebounding team, number two in the nation, while Marquette cares more about getting back on defense than trying for second chance points. A fine strategy, but they are bad at defensive rebounding as well which should allow Armando Bacot to clean up.

Pick: Bet North Carolina -3.5

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#8 San Diego State vs. #9 Creighton Betting Tips:

I’m sure this won’t be a popular bet, but I really like the under in this one.

Each of these teams lead their conference in defense. San Diego State was the number one team in the nation in Defensive Efficiency. Creighton will be without starting point guard Ryan Nembhard for the tournament.

The last game each of these teams played should be predictive of the final score of this one. Creighton lost to Villanova 54-48 and SDSU lost to Boise State 52-53. A score in the sixties from either team would be surprising.

Pick: Bet SDSU/Creighton Under 120

#13 Vermont vs. #4 Arkansas Betting Tips:

These picks have been very chalky, but that ends here with Vermont who have a scary offense. They had the seventh best Offensive Efficiency this year and won their last four games by 19 or more, last three by 31 or more.

This is definitely a potential upset at +180 if the Vermont offense gets hot, but we’ll take the points and by happy.

Pick: Bet Vermont +5

#7 Murray State vs. #10 San Francisco Betting Tips:

Murray State won thirty games this year and haven’t lost since December, but I am going against them here.

San Francisco is making their first appearance in the tournament since 1998 so you know the team should be highly motivated in this one. They have one of the better defenses in the tournament and face off against a very good offensive team here.

The thing that is swaying me here is that San Francisco had to play top-seeded Gonzaga three times this year. They lost all three, but never embarrassed themselves. Did Murray State play a single team that tough? I’d say no. They had an extremely easy schedule this year.

Pick: Bet San Francisco +1

#1 Kansas vs. #16 Texas Southern Betting Tips:

There is a big spread on this one with the Jayhawks being favored by -21.5. That’s a big number that I could see them covering. This is one of the best offenses in all of basketball going against a team from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. We know how these things turn out.

That number is so high though. I do expect Kansas to score 80+ points and can even see them hitting 100. Kansas has hit over 4 out of five times this season when the spread is over -19.5.

Pick: Bet Kansas/Texas Southern Over 143.5

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