Familiar faces will be playing in familiar places late Saturday (9:45 PM Eastern) when two BIG EAST schools collide in the third round of the 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The third-seeded Connecticut Huskies must again play the sixth-seeded Bearcats for the chance to advance to the Sweet-16 in the Western Regional. The games venue; none other than fellow league rival Georgetown's home court at Verizon Arena in Washington D.C.
Oddsmakers at most off shore sports shops list UConn as 4 1/2-chalk NCAA Point Spreads favorites for the game with a combined point total of 131. Bearcats backers are getting +165 on the off shore moneyline while the price of a ML wager on the Huskies is -190. For bettors unfamiliar with the moneyline format;in order to win $100 betting on UConn, it requires a $190 wager. On the flip side, today's underdog is lined getting +165 ML odds. Here if a $100 wager is a winner, the player wins $165.
Early betting trends, always good tools for making NCAA Basketball Picks, are telling us how the rest of the world is betting compared to you. For this game public confidence is high with 89 percent wagering the side with UConn -4 1/2 and 84 percent playing the Huskies on the moneyline. Players who like playing the total(over/under) have hit the OVER 131 at 87 percent.
Cincinnati and UConn played once in the regular season (Feb. 27) with the Huskies winning on the road 67-59 and covering ATS as a 3 1/2-point underdog. The 129 points scored in the game fell UNDER the posted 128 total.
The Bearcats finished ahead of UConn in the 2011 BIG EAST Standings(6th) although were slightly slumping at the end and finished the year unranked at 26-8 overall and 11-7 in conference play. UConn finished the BIG EAST regular season off in 9th place tied with Villanova and Marquette, but won the championship by winning the league tournament.
There was a time when UConn looked like a bubble team but played their minds out once the bell rang marking the beginning of March. UConn is currently riding a six game winning streak. I like to play the hot team and that's why Cincinnati is my NCAA Basketball Predictions choice is UConn -4 1/2.
