NCAA Tournament opening weekend betting recap: Sorting out the madness
Ashton Grewal
Phew… what an opening weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Underdogs went 1-7 against the spread on Sunday with some big-name programs bowing out early and that wasn’t even the biggest story of the opening weekend.
For the first time ever a No. 16 upset a No. 1 and four days into the Big Dance two one-seeds, two two-seeds and two three-seeds all had their seasons ended. Virginia, North Carolina and Michigan State, all among the top favorites to win the national championship last week, are gone and so are other higher-seeded teams like Xavier, Cincinnati and Tennessee.
Here are the biggest betting takeaways from the play-in games and the opening rounds of the tournament:
Big upsets, big moneyline payouts:
Only two double-digit seeds advanced to the Sweet 16 but there were plenty of large, outright upsets in the Rounds of 64 and 32. The biggest, of course, was UMBC beating top overall seed Virginia by 20 points as a 20.5-point underdog. Many sportsbooks didn't offer moneyline odds on this game but those that did had the Retrievers at +2000. That means a $100 bet on UMBC would have paid $2100.
The Retrievers weren’t the only dogs paying at the betting window for bettors. Marshall won outright as a 13.5-point pup against Wichita State and sportbooks offered +858 pregame odds on the Conference USA champions to win.
A few others of note: Syracuse paid +512 in its upset over MSU, Nevada’s incredible comeback against Cincinnati equaled a +454 win for moneyline bettors (+2200 at their deepest deficit in-game) and Buffalo cashed at +445 in its Round of 64 upset over Arizona.
Under trend:
The Under went 31-21 (including the play-in games) with some ugly, low-scoring games. Loyola-Chicago, Syracuse, Michigan and Kansas State were the worst offenders; the Under went a combined 9-0 in their games.
Favorites not doing as bad as you’d think:
It’s been no cakewalk for chalk teams in the tournament but favorites haven’t been getting murdered against the number. In a weekend filled with upsets, the betting faves went 22-24-1 against the spread. The number excludes the Texas-Nevada game which closed as a pick ‘em.
Higher seeded teams went 13-3 straight up on Thursday and finished the first four days of March Madness with 33-15 outright record.
Bad Beats
There was bound to be plenty of bad beats with 48 college basketball games jammed crammed into a four-day window. Here’s a brief recap of some of the worst ones.
Kansas -4.5 vs. Seton Hall
Devonte’ Graham sinks two free throws to put the Jayhawks up 83-76 with only five seconds left. The Pirates have no chance to win the game trailing by seven points but Myles Powell heaves and hits a contested 3-pointer at the buzzer. Final score: Kansas 83, Seton Hall 79. An undeserved loss for Kansas backers like these people:
Kentucky -5.5 vs. Davidson
This game closed with Big Blue Nation favored by 4.5 but there were plenty of unfortunate souls who got John Calipari’s team at -5.5 or -5. UK led by 10 points with 23 seconds left but Davidson ended up covering thanks to a bunch of last-second craziness – which included a made 3-pointer with 0.6 seconds left to make the final score 78-73.
Ashton Grewal
Phew… what an opening weekend in the NCAA Tournament. Underdogs went 1-7 against the spread on Sunday with some big-name programs bowing out early and that wasn’t even the biggest story of the opening weekend.
For the first time ever a No. 16 upset a No. 1 and four days into the Big Dance two one-seeds, two two-seeds and two three-seeds all had their seasons ended. Virginia, North Carolina and Michigan State, all among the top favorites to win the national championship last week, are gone and so are other higher-seeded teams like Xavier, Cincinnati and Tennessee.
Here are the biggest betting takeaways from the play-in games and the opening rounds of the tournament:
Big upsets, big moneyline payouts:
Only two double-digit seeds advanced to the Sweet 16 but there were plenty of large, outright upsets in the Rounds of 64 and 32. The biggest, of course, was UMBC beating top overall seed Virginia by 20 points as a 20.5-point underdog. Many sportsbooks didn't offer moneyline odds on this game but those that did had the Retrievers at +2000. That means a $100 bet on UMBC would have paid $2100.
The Retrievers weren’t the only dogs paying at the betting window for bettors. Marshall won outright as a 13.5-point pup against Wichita State and sportbooks offered +858 pregame odds on the Conference USA champions to win.
A few others of note: Syracuse paid +512 in its upset over MSU, Nevada’s incredible comeback against Cincinnati equaled a +454 win for moneyline bettors (+2200 at their deepest deficit in-game) and Buffalo cashed at +445 in its Round of 64 upset over Arizona.
Under trend:
The Under went 31-21 (including the play-in games) with some ugly, low-scoring games. Loyola-Chicago, Syracuse, Michigan and Kansas State were the worst offenders; the Under went a combined 9-0 in their games.
Favorites not doing as bad as you’d think:
It’s been no cakewalk for chalk teams in the tournament but favorites haven’t been getting murdered against the number. In a weekend filled with upsets, the betting faves went 22-24-1 against the spread. The number excludes the Texas-Nevada game which closed as a pick ‘em.
Higher seeded teams went 13-3 straight up on Thursday and finished the first four days of March Madness with 33-15 outright record.
Bad Beats
There was bound to be plenty of bad beats with 48 college basketball games jammed crammed into a four-day window. Here’s a brief recap of some of the worst ones.
Kansas -4.5 vs. Seton Hall
Devonte’ Graham sinks two free throws to put the Jayhawks up 83-76 with only five seconds left. The Pirates have no chance to win the game trailing by seven points but Myles Powell heaves and hits a contested 3-pointer at the buzzer. Final score: Kansas 83, Seton Hall 79. An undeserved loss for Kansas backers like these people:
Kentucky -5.5 vs. Davidson
This game closed with Big Blue Nation favored by 4.5 but there were plenty of unfortunate souls who got John Calipari’s team at -5.5 or -5. UK led by 10 points with 23 seconds left but Davidson ended up covering thanks to a bunch of last-second craziness – which included a made 3-pointer with 0.6 seconds left to make the final score 78-73.
Comment