The March to the Big Dance

What a great leap day. Only thing better is we are now OFFICIALLY into MARCH!  That's right, March Madness is here and we are 10 days away from selection Sunday.

Last night we witnessed heartbreak with Northwestern narrowly losing to Ohio State.  (Everyone feels bad for this team who just can't get over the hump.  A win at Iowa and a round or two in the Big 10 Tourney, may still get it done though.)   Solid day with yesterday's recommendations.  Purdue sent Robbie Hummel out in style on Senior day, New Mexico beat down Air Force, and Alabama & Lehigh won by enough to cover their teaser plays.  Now onto today's plays:

Washington (-7) @ USC.  (7:30pm PST tip off)
USC is 1-15 in PAC12 play and is basically playing out the last two regular season games before they are eliminated in the first round of the PAC12 next week.  That one win vs a depleted Utah (3-13 in the PAC12.)  Last time the Huskies played USC they won by 28.  We know that Washington is not as good on the road, but there should be at least a double digit victory here for a team that needs to win out to quiet any bubble team notions.  The line in the last matchup between these two teams was -12, shift 6-8 points for home court advantage, add in past results, and the -7 makes sense to oddsmakers.  Expect this one to be closer than last time, but not much.  Love this game, teased to +1, or against the -7 spread.

Bradley @ Drake (6.5).  (6:30pm PST tip off)

Catch that Seinfeld reference? Love the Drake!

Arch Madness begins tonight in St. Louis, with Bradley - who is the bottom feeder of the Missouri Valley Conference - taking on Drake.  Bradley was 2-14 in conference play, 2-22 in last 24, and lost both times against Drake this season (by 6 & 8 points).  Drake is in a logjam with five 9-9 teams in the conference, but won the tiebreakers to get the right to play Bradley in the opening round of the MVC tourney - lucky them!

We love the Drake today.  Take them -6.5 against the spread, or better yet +1.5 in a 8pt teaser!

San Francisco (-9) vs Portland (6:00pm PST tip off)
Round 2 of the West Coast Conference tourney.  Portland (7-23) escaped with a 4 point win last night vs tragic Santa Clara.  (They must be so happy to be put out of their misery.)   San Fran (18-12) beat Portland earlier this year by 34 and will be ready and rested tonight.  San Fran has been an above average team this year and easily handled Santa Clara, Pepperdine, San Diego, and even got a surprise win recently vs Gonzaga.  This game shouldn't be close and you gotta really like San Fran in an 8pt teaser (-1) - a very solid play tonight.

San Diego (-3.5) vs Pepperdine (8:00pm PST tip off)
Staying in the West Coast Conference, Pepperdine is not a good basketball team about the same as Portland.  4-12 in conference play, 10-18 overall.  Pepperdine's only wins came against Santa Clara, and a home/road split vs Portland & San Fran.  These two teams have played twice this year, 9 & 13 point victories for San Diego.  (Pepperdine hit a last second three in the 9 point affair - SD was up double digits most of the game.)  Expect more of the same tonight, taking a shot with San Diego -3.5.

Utah (+18) @ Oregon State (7:00pm PST tip off)
Ugh, the PAC12 is a bad league this year and we got two teams that are near the bottom of the league. Utah has been playing better of late, losing games by closer margins before upsetting Stanford the last time out.  Oregon State is in freefall, losing 5 in a row - last win was 18 points vs Utah.  23 turnovers and general bad play in the last matchup has the Utah players talking in the papers recently about taking this game with Oregon St. a little more seriously this time around.  Expect a slower pace, a better effort from a more confident Utah team, and really like them to cover the +18 today.  A tease with Utah +26 is also a pretty good play.

LIU Brooklyn (-8) vs Sacred Heart
Conference tourney week allows up to bet on a Northeast conference game.  Quarterfinal matchup between league #1 LIU (16-2), vs #8 Sacred Heart.  Not sure how much heart, the Pioneers have as they lost both matchups to LIU this year (by 6 & 12 points).  A expect a broken heart after the game as LIU should roll here, really like them in a teaser to get this to a PK as we don't expect them to lose tonight.

Lots of other games tonight to watch.....

Oregon (-6) vs Colorado in a battle of bubble teams.  Loser will be done.  Winner is barely still alive.

Michigan (+2) @ Illinois.  Has the Illini fixed their problems after breaking a 7 game losing streak?  Will the Wolverines continue a streak of rebounding off a loss.  (15-0 coming off a loss.)

Kentucky (-21) is too big of a spread to trust vs Georgia.  Will win, the question will be by how much?

Good luck today and let's go cash some tickets to get March off to a great start!